na: st. vincent, discovery
I’d like to start off this week’s new arrivals with a heartfelt congratulations to the Rural Alberta Advantage. Our former eMusic Selects band is straight up killing it, and today this has been officially recognized by the oracle of oracles, Pitchfork. Their Pitchfork review gives their Hometowns an 8.0, and Rebecca Raber declares “songs this good deserve to be heard by audiences as large as their sonic scope.” Amen to that. If you haven’t bought the album yet, definitely do so. And if you have, they’re releasing a limited-edition 7-inch, too. For more on their story, you can check out this excellent post detailing their career to date.
Onto the new releases…
St. Vincent, Actor: Finally here after a two-month holdback, St. Vincent’s breakthrough is beloved by pretty much everyone. (There was about a two week stretch where you couldn’t pay Joe enough money to shut up about it.) I still haven’t spent much time with it because, well, I dunno why, but it does, indeed, sound very pleasant and more songs like “Actor Out of Work” would be more than welcome. So yeah, you want this.
Discovery, LP: I straight-up hate this. Have I ever written that before on 17D? This is members of Ra Ra Riot and Vampire Weekend making a contemporary R&B album because… I dunno. Joe likes this, so I’ll let him defend it.
Cass McCombs, Catacombs: Mention Cass McCombs around Alex here in the office and you’ll definitely see his head pop up, excited. Dude loves him some Cass McCombs. Once we brought in a cardboard cutout and Alex spent three days talking to it before we finally told him the truth. That’s love, folks.
And you know what? I like this, too. It’s got a good ’70s Topanga Canyon feel mixed in with a lot of the popular contemporary indie stuff that I can’t identify because I do my best to ignore it. But yeah, this is great.
Those Darlins, Those Darlins: After playing a (relatively) raucous set in the eMusic kitchen last year, these gals have become a kind of house band here at eMu HQ. It’s twangy rock & roll, bluegrass played with aggression and abandon. Saradevil, flamgirlant and Amanda, this record is for you.
Pine Hill Haints, To Win or To Lose: Is this the first-ever K signing from Alabama? I would certainly guess so. Pine Hill Haints are from the same school as Those Darlins, only with a male vocal. It’s good times.
Bowerbirds, Upper Air: Kinda gloomy and serious and folky. Building steam.
The Minus 5, Killingsworth & Young Fresh Fellows, I Think This Is: Scott McCaughey is the frontman for both the Minus 5 and the Young Fresh Fellows, and both bands drop new albums today. Minus 5 are pleasant country-tinged pop, and the Young Fresh Fellows best known for the Kids in the Hall theme song (ignore that I am an idiot) are a bit more Brit-pop.
We Were Promised Jetpacks, These Four Walls: These guys are from Glasgow and do, in fact, sound quite a bit like our favorite Glasgowigianists: Frightened Rabbit. The end.
The Young Fresh Fellows did not do the Kids in the Hall theme song – that was Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet.
Not exactly similar bands, either.
DOH! So dumb. Thanks Brian.
The St Vincent remains one of my favorite records of the year. I play it constantly — I think the songwriting is inventive, I like her weird blank-as-slate/robot-woman persona, I like how eerie and unsettling it is. St. Vincent fan 4 life.
I feel like I should qualify my feelings on the Discovery: I think it is fine. I like playing it in the background. I haven’t devoted a ton of attention to it. If I was running some kind of website where I graded records, I would think a 5.5 for this would be just fine.
Also: we have a great Jukebox Jury with Scott from the Minus 5, which should be hitting the site by the end of the day.
A few new arrivals I wanna call out:
Bettie Serveert, Private Suit: I loved this record when it came out. I haven’t listened to it in years, but at the time I remember thinking it was the first great Bettie Serveert record after a string of very bad Bettie Serveert records. It’s hushed and quiet, but the songwriting is lovely. If you ever liked them, or ever had a soft spot for, say, Over the Rhine, you will like this.
Kool G Rap, 4, 5, 6: THIS RECORD RULES. Classic old-school hip-hop from a true pioneer who was, at one time, among the best lyricists around. Check out “Blowin’ Up in the World” if you doubt.
David Bowie, Outside: I keep wanting to defend this record, but I don’t know why. This was from the era when Bowie was touring with Nine Inch Nails, which still somehow seems cooler to me than the era when Bowie was making jungle records and going electronica. Does that make me an idiot? My defense of this record goes like this: “The Heart’s Filthy Lesson,” “I’m Deranged,” “I Have Not Been to Oxford Town,” “Strangers When We Meet.” There are some jams on here, no? Yes? My past life as a teenage fan of goth/industrial has prevented me from having any clarity on this album at all. I can tell you this: the whole “murder-as-art” story arc is fucking stupid.
Duraluxe, The Suitcase: This band used to be called Fluffy before they were forced to change it. I like most of these records — they started out as scuzz-punk but gradually evolved into a kind of dreamy pop music. They have an album called Sugar Pistol that has some jams on it. I haven’t heard this one yet, but the samples sound decent.
Lights On, Waiting for the Heart to Beat: Totally passable commercially dance-rock. Vaguely Killersy, but not as good. Yeah, I said it. Not as good as the Killers.
Ortolan, Ortolan: So I’ll listen to anything that comes out on Sounds Familyre because I heart Daniel Smith so much. This is vaguely precious high school musical core — and if you think I mean that as a diss, you do not know me very well. Cute and sweet.
Soul Junk, 1957, 1958, 1959: Man, I used to love Soul-Junk. I haven’t listened to these records in a long, long time, so I can’t vouch for them, but if you like junky experimental music, you may be into this. I remember there used to be rapping involved, which is a big part of why I am afraid to listen to it now. But the psych freakouts weren’t bad.
Weird Al Yankovic, UHF: SPATULA CITY! SPATULA CITY! “I’M THINKING OF SOMETHING ORANGE. GIVE UP? IT’S AN ORANGE.”
Is there a reason the St. Vincent record is not available in Canada? The single is available here.
Hmm, not sure, Don – lemme look into it for you and find out.
I don’t know if I’m ever going to get around to the Sony stuff I’m interested in because of weeks like this.
Umm yeah, Cass McCombs. It’s unhealthy, perhaps, but still… that guy RULES!
Also, fans of dreampop, don’t miss the Depreciation Guild single Dream About Me. REALLY REALLY GOOD.
I could never get into St. Vincent until this recent album. When she did those two acoustic versions of some songs from Actor on Pitchfork.tv, I was hooked. I still haven’t paid enough attention to it though.
This Build An Ark release. I don’t even know what or who this is exactly. But it’s all spaced out, laid back, sometimes psychedelic. Who knows. I sampled it, and downloaded immediately. Ras G is somewhere in there.
New Tanya Morgan featuring Blu. You can’t go wrong with this. At all. It’s just the one song but it’s worth it and the production is warm and comforting.
Mamou Sidibé is a Malian singer with a musical pedigree. Both of her parents are fairly popular Malian musicians (Thank you internet!). It’s a melancholy mix, and it sounds pretty good.
Also, the new DJ Food album is spacey but I haven’t really check it out. It’s just nice to see a new DJ Food release, even if it might disappoint.
Great stuff, thanks. Any idea if we can still expect Grizzly Bear/Camera Obscura at some point?
I’ll check on that now!
Thanks for the RAA info. Great album.
Cobra Skulls are a fantastic punk band that just put out their follow-up full length. I’ve been looking forward to it for years
[url]http://www.emusic.com/album/Cobra-Skulls-American-Rubicon-MP3-Download/11505190.html[/url]
Big D and the Kids Table also put out their new album today (a Side One Dummy band) [url]http://www.emusic.com/album/Big-D-And-The-Kids-Table-Fluent-In-Stroll-MP3-Download/11507001.html[/url]
from Tru Thoughts:
Quantic and His Combo Barbaro / Tradition in Transition: http://www.emusic.com/album/Quantic-And-His-Combo-Barbaro-Tradition-In-Transition-MP3-Download/11504725.html
Picked up that Discovery disc sight unseen based on the pedigree and…it kinda sucks. I was OK with it for the first few songs until the Autotune kicked in. Ugh.
The Discovery album just makes me laugh, and not really in a bad way. I just keep picturing Axel Foley and Judge Reinhold (I don’t remember his character’s name, some flower I think) running around shooting people while I listen to it, and that can’t help but make me smile.
Craig
The new Oneida record would be worth pointing out. But the restrictions that make it a 36 track download, instead of 15, means it may be worth buying it somewhere other than eMusic.
Will the new Son Volt be here? Thanks.
DJ: Hang in there at least a day…
Thanks, Joe. I’ll wait and see.
“Great stuff, thanks. Any idea if we can still expect Grizzly Bear/Camera Obscura at some point?”
{i}At some point?{/i} I thought it was inevitable (or at least totally anticipated), just after a hold-back period.
Good to see the RAA get some well-deserved recognition. I saw the trio a few weeks ago in Indianapolis. It was wonderful to see so many songs from ‘Hometowns’ live and loud.
Yancey, thanks for bringing the band to eMusic last year. You were certainly ahead of the curve.
Not sure if this was accidental or not
Should this Sampler not Be Free? http://www.emusic.com/album/Various-Artists-Rock-The-Bells-Six-Years-Of-Live-Hip-Hop-Free-Sa-MP3-Download/11496144.html
Some Good Looking Songs on it but as it’s called Rock The Bells: Six Years Of Live Hip-Hop (Free Sampler) I’d expect it to be Free :-/
Good catch, Nergal! I’ll point it out.
Going to see RAA here in LA tonight…can’t wait!!! And BTW they’re more deserving of a 9.0
Hope emusic selects just keeps getting better/more interesting with each release – please keep it going!!!
Anyword on the William Basinski Album that’s been out for a bit: “92982″?
Thanks!
“Anyword on the William Basinski Album that’s been out for a bit: ‘92982′?”
Seconded!
Wow, Those Darlins sure have some teeth, huh? Definitely more broadlike than ladylike and that’s just how I like my chick bands. Damn good call Yancey!
SR30 – The RAA are actually in Portland tonight – They’ll be in LA on Friday night at the Echo. I’ll see you there!
Hey Yancey:
Any chance eMu will get the re-recorded Frank AB and Deadroads from the RAA’s 7′? I contributed to the kickstarter project, but I haven’t had a record player in over 20 years. How am I going to get that on my iPod?
Also wondering why the St. Vincent isn’t available in Canada, really looking forward to hearing it. Thanks!
The new one from Engineers, Three Fact Fader is available here. Highly recommended…
Checked in earlier today! Waiting on a reply.
I grabbed the
The Duckworth Lewis Method album last night. It’s Neil Hannon from the Divine Comedy and some other bloke. It’s a concept album and it about cricket. I love cricket. I mean LOVE cricket. The Ashes start tomorrow – probably the superbowl of cricket my American, non-Commonwealth friends – and this has been the perfect soundtrack to the build up. it has a very St. Peppers, carnival vibe with some nice slights of style and genre, particularly on Sweet Spot. I can hear quite a dash of Magnetic Fields in here and some of the crickets references are loose It’s all very gentlemanly and highly recommended.
thanks timucla, you saved me a trip…I wouldn’t have noticed until I got to will call.
The new one from Engineers, Three Fact Fader…Highly Recommended to those who like Slowdive,The Doves,Chapterhouse et al…
The Duckworth Lewis thing cracks me up — not in a bad way at all. I love the Divine Comedy. But after the review came in I told Jayson it just might be the most British record of all time. In no way is that a dis. It’s like the anti- Born in the USA or something.
@Joe, if I was to some up The Duckworth Lewis album in one word it would be: “Smashing”.
Ironic that it’s taken 2 Irish chaps to write such a British album. Jiggery Pokery is my pick at the moment.
That Duckworth Lewis album is a lot of fun, love the line “if it were a cheese roll it never would have got past me” in Jiggery Pokery – Gats to a tee that!
dear editor,
please do not allow these assholes to use a phrase like ’straight up’ twice in one post (i.e. ‘[The Rural Alberta Advantage] is straight up killing it..’ and ‘I straight up hate this’, regarding Discovery.)
Also, please fuck off with the Pitchfork ass-licking, O Oracle of Oracles.
Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention, Emusic is a totally ridiculous waste of time and money thanks to its many new improvements.
God Bless America,
Sir Dirty Whisker, Esq.
I see that you still take the time to swing by, though, Dirty, so you seem to get SOMETHING from this “complete waste of time.”
I’m straight-up confused as to why you bothered.
@Joe as a follow-up Thanks that sampler is now free Downloading it now
look’s like lots of good on it 
@Joe, Thank you so much! The Oneida is now a single album, and the kind of deal I come to eMusic for.
Awesome! Glad both worked out.
oh snap, JonathanL! A straight-up zinger.
But if I don’t swing by and soil your underpants, who will?
All in good fun, DirtyWhisker. =)
Yeah, so glad Actor finally arrived and We Were Promised Jetpacks as well.
SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION:
My Band’s album just dropped on emusic. Let me know what you think and spread the word.
http://www.emusic.com/album/Toy-Balloon-Toy-Division-MP3-Download/11508876.html
Kind of shoegazer/ electro/ disco pop
Thanks!!!
That Discovery album is so fucking wretched. I won’t ever listen to either of those bands again for having come together to make that.
@Joe: I *didn’t* hang in there for a day on the Oneida album, a victim of poor quality control (Oneida cost 36 credits when I checked here Wednesday; flush as I was with renewed credits for the first time since the Sony binge, that was WAY too high a price, even for a favorite band), and poor timing on my part (you hadn’t responded to DJ Adequate by the time I checked in here). I snagged it on Amazon instead.
I haven’t weighed in on the whole Sony thing yet, preferring a wait-and-see approach. But now that I have some credits to use for the first time since the merger, my opinion is starting to gel. I find it rather interesting to see the eMusic charts dominated — still — by indie titles. Had Michael Jackson not died, we wouldn’t be seeing a single Sony title in the Top 15 today. This confirms my suspicion that the Sony catalog deal added very little value to existing subs.
It’s also complicated the process of using up all our credits in a given month. For full-album-download folks like myself, it takes a great deal of additional research to find a combination of records in which I am interested that adds up, in terms of credits, to exactly the number I have available in a given month.
I downloaded *Nebraska* this week, and *Abraxas,* but I’m worried the already shallow well of Sony back catalog I don’t already own is already starting to run dry. Which tells me that when my subscription comes up for renewal in September, I’ll have a lot of thinking to do before I commit to a re-up.
I’m with you Discovery haters – I really tried to like the album, I just couldn’t do it. I actually ranted about it a bit today on my silly blog. Allow me to quote myself:
“The new Discovery album reminds me of the first time I was hit with killer munchies oh so many years ago. I opened the fridge to find a container of left over spaghetti and a half-eaten Hershey’s bar. A friend walked into the kitchen to find me with a forkful of cold spaghetti topped with a little square of chocolate – luckily he stopped me before I had a chance to take the bite.
“But”, I pleaded, “I like spaghetti. And I like chocolate. I bet I’d REALLY like them together!” Despite my attempt to connect those fuzzy logical dots, he convinced me to eat them separately. I figured he knew better having had many more years of munchies under his belt than I.
Where was that wise friend when Wes and Rostam got together? Don’t get me wrong, I like Ra Ra Riot and I like Vampire Weekend and I gave Discovery a fair shake, but like cold spaghetti and chocolate they should be enjoyed separately.”
I had a lovely evening and i just came home. I was surfing the net for same ol’ same ol’ and i found your post. I don’t usualy comment but thanks for the read. I’ll go watch some tv now before i go to bed. have a nice day/evening and keep on blogging. Bye!