Thanks for your kind welcome yesterday, folks. We’ve got a pretty astounding smorgasbord of new stuff this week. Diversity, for sure. There’s comfort food and challenging cuisine alike. Let’s have a taste, shall we?
Jay Reatard, Watch Me Fall – This one’s a big deal. Hard to believe it’s been three years since Jay Reatard’s last proper full-length. He’s been filling up on comps and 7”s in the meantime, compiled here and here. But this an eMusic only advance for your ass, so dig deep into the Memphis savant’s twitchy, tense, perfectly calibrated spurts of punk-junk-pop. Guaranteed to last no more than 35 minutes and worth every millisecond.
Yim Yames, Tribute To – Hands down my favorite release of the week. My Morning Jacket’s Jim James tags a few Ys on his moniker and melts into his hero George Harrison’s catalogue. If you missed the James of MMJ’s At Dawn – heavy on the reverb and silo recording style – this is a return to form. Hard to go wrong with Harrison solo classics like “All Things Must Pass” and “My Sweet Lord,” but it’s his banjo-driven re-imagining of The Beatles’ “Love You To” from Revolver that’s got me swooning.
Amanda Blank, I Love You – NSFW alert. Rapping Philly chick Amanda made her name at the half-century mark running with Spank Rock as a sort of white, pottymouthed female foil. A Lil’ Kim for the hipster set. But something funny happened in the last few years: She started to sing, and sing pretty well. Now I Love You is here and it’s a weirdly compelling album, hardly reliant on sex-you-up threats. “A Love Song” seamlessly weaves LL Cool J’s “I Need Love” and Santigold’s “I’m a Lady.” Not revolutionary by any means, but there are moments of greatness at a time when female MCs are at a premium.
Nurses, Apple’s Acre – Probably the week’s biggest brainworm. I first listened to this last week with little interest, and have since found myself moaning “Technicolor” in my sleep. My fiancée is thrilled. It’s indie pop-rock, but not really. There’s heaps of ambient, electronic arrangements under the high-pitched Animal Collective-type yarling. Try to shake it; it won’t take.
Lightning Dust, Infinite Light – Amber Webber and Joshua Wells from Black Mountain just can’t get sensitive when they’re busy blowing minds with choogling guitar crunch. So they formed this side project. As far as B.M. sideshows go, this doesn’t scale Pink Mountaintops for me, but there’s lots worth liking.
Desolation Wilderness, New Universe – Haven’t spent much time with this one yet, but the always dependable Melissa Maerz tells us in her review that this is summery dream pop built on “soft waves of reverb, guitar riffs that bleed like watercolors and muffled vocals that echo like they’re being projected across the dunes.” Go get your Kadima set.
Throw Me The Statue, Creaturesque – Scott Reitherman has been at it as Throw Me The Statue for a few years now, and this is the first of his albums that’s clicked for me. Light, airy, and co-prouced by indie rock prod god Phil Ek (The Shins, Built To Spill, Band of Horses), Creaturesque sways and swings where it needs to.
Dorrough, Dorrough Music – This Dallas rapper is having a huge moment with his dueling hits “Ice Cream Paint Job” and “Walk That Walk.” Fairly standard Southern swag music, but inescapably catchy. Unfortunately his album isn’t quite a testament to his artistic depth. Come for the hits, stay for the middling album cuts!
Antony & The Johnsons, Aeon – This single release from the quavering bird king features a nifty bonus: An elegiac cover of Beyoncé’s “Crazy In Love.” Only Antony could make the wailing, brassy pop hit such a dour, emotionally gutted piece of pomp. Counterintuitive, overwrought, but weirdly entrancing.
Sian Alice Group, Troubled, Shaken, Etc. – As far as I can tell, this group changes their sound on every song. Troubled, Shaken, Etc. is no exception. From driving guitar rock to pensive piano lullabyes to operatic soundscapes, the only consistent undercurrent is a deep sadness. In a good way.
What else should we be seeing and hearing this week?
I have to put in an extra-special plug for the Lightning Dust. Cannot get enough of it.
I’ve not got a chance to hear it, but the samples for Julian Plenti (of Interpol) sound great.
The Dodos Time to Die arrived today.
http://www.emusic.com/album/The-Dodos-Time-To-Die-MP3-Download/11541981.html
I’ve been all over the new Dodos since it appeared on Amazon last week for 2.99. I like it better than Visiter!
It’s more revved-up, right? Some people I know who loved the debut are disappointed; their feeling is that the bigger, richer sound removes that primal sound that made the debut special. I haven’t given it any attention yet, so I can’t say (I will download it).
Meanwhile, Joe Pernice returns with a solo disc, that apparently accompanies a novel he wrote? I love The Pernice Bros., but to be honest, their discs seem interchangeable to me now, so I don’t pay much attention to them. I wasn’t excited about this one, either, but listening to the soundscans now, I hear him covering some songs I love (and I usually hate covers), e.g., CHEVY VAN. Link below.
http://www.emusic.com/album/Joe-Pernice-It-Feels-So-Good-When-I-Stop-Novel-Soundtrack-MP3-Download/11509013.html
Yes, the Dodos! I saw it, remembered it, then promptly forgot. Absolutely solid. Not sure if I like it better than Visiter.
BTW, there’s a green flag on the Pernice album that says “deal.” That’s new, yes?
There are 13 songs on the disc, which is priced at 12 credits. Is that flag something we’ll see more of? If so, I suggest a different color, to distinguish it from eMusic Picks.
Joe Pernice’s cover of “I Go to Pieces” from the soundtrack to his novel is nice.
http://www.emusic.com/album/Joe-Pernice-It-Feels-So-Good-When-I-Stop-Novel-Soundtrack-MP3-Download/11509013.html
That Antony cover of Beyonce is astonishing…good old Nico Muhly, composer darling of the indie rock set, arranged it for Antony when he performed live with the Brooklyn Philharmonic live a year or so ago.
I had six tracks left to use, and the “Yim Yames” was the perfect fit. I would totally have missed it if you hadn’t pointed it out, but it’s just the kind of sad, odd, beautiful thing I love.
Yim Yames looks very interesting, we got it in the UK over the weekend! Any idea if the UK will be getting the Amanda Blank as I’ve been looking for it for a while. Will it be next week when it gets a CD release over here? Also any UK readers might like to check out the Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs that finally come out this week over here
hey daniel! i’m just as surprised by that “deal” icon as you are! I’ll see what I can find out.
I don’t know if I’d call the new Dodo’s more “revved up”, but I have referred to is as softer than Visiter. Which is a bit of a disappointment to me – I love Visiter. The new one is good too and it does have an energy about it, but the rough edges have been sanded down. I dunno… I kinda like it a bit rougher and dirtier. Yes, you can spread that around.
I did catch Holiday Shores in the N/A list too – came in yesterday, maybe? Maybe today. They got that psych surf pop rock thing going. It’s nice.
Other samples I kinda liked that no one mentioned:
The Nobility
The Anomoanon
Marmoset
Don’t know scratch nor sniff about ‘em, but they intrigued me enough to stash in my SFL for future sampling.
I can verify that she likes it rough and dirty.
omg lol !
The Anomoanon are fronted by Will Oldham’s brother, and I love them. But the albums are part of a drop by Temporary Residence of older stuff that has been hear before, so beware it’s not all new.
That being said, Asleep in the Woods, by Anomoanon, is one of my all time favorite records.
Ummmm what’s up with so many (album) Artless albums the last 2-weeks
Also the text is quite screwy on the Joe Pernice album linked about “Thatâs How I Got to Memphis” is looks like the unicode or HTML code being used for ‘ is incorrect.
I really need to look at my Freshly Ripped before commenting on NA Posts (Good first showing though Sean . . . Although I’ll repeat my former gripe of Anthony and the Johnsons sound like my 90 year old grandmother screeching through a gramophone)
Listening to Joe Pernice cover “Chevy Van” just makes me want to hear the original.
Sadly, all we have besides the Pernice cover are “re-recorded versions.”
Agreed that Asleep in the Woods by Anomoanon is a great one. It was a daily download discovery from a long time ago.
I’m always late to the new additions these days but everyone’s pretty much mentioned all the great new albums. The new Jay Reatard is really fun and demented and I can’t get enough of it. I’ve been listening to Lightning Dust more and more lately and its a great mix of goth-like broken choir vocals and pop melodies.
On the metal front there’s a new album from Greymachine, Disconnected. It’s really fuzzed out but I’ve only sampled it, I haven’t listened fully yet. I’ll also admit that I know nothing about the band but it’s on Hydra Head so I figured you can’t go wrong.
Some new 10-20 here. Its an EP of some out-there IDM and dubstep and like the previously released album, its pretty eclectic. Very cool.
Ooh, some stuff from the Brainfeeder label on Alpha Pup. It’s The Gaslamp Killer and so far it sounds like dark and creepy beats, but overall somewhat conventional. I have a soft spot for Brainfeeder.
Okay, so I’ve discovered that iTunes also only carries the re-recorded version of ”Chevy Van,” which means I’m likely to download the re-recorded version that’s here (it would be the first re-recording I ever downloaded). Only 1 credit! An AM Gold classic!
I tried working out the chord progression for the chorus, with limited success. It’s A — E — D — A, so I — V — IV — I, which sorta makes sense. I lost it after that, tho (and I’m not sure it’s a pure A, anyway). I’m a bonehead, is the bottom line.
I think it’s an Asus4 to start the chorus, Daniel.
Pictureplanes new one Dark Rift dropped Today! Its chocked-full of scuzzy, bass heavy, 90’s house jams. Guaranteed summer night party starter!
Pictureplane Dark Rift
When are domino records going to be available to download in the UK again?
Why do US users only get access to a UK label?
Strange…
“I think it’s an Asus4 to start the chorus, Daniel.”
Thanks!
i’m actually more likely to check out the new dodos based on waht i’ve heard. visiter was jut a bit self-indulgent for me. some seriously awesome stuff, but then there were some tracks where i jsut wondered who thought it was a good idea to keep going.
Sooooo I was gonna be real happy and tell everyone about the return of one of my favorite bands from the 90s GreenAppleQuickstep. However, not only does the new album GreenAppleQuickStep)Rock’n'Roll sound nothing like the lovely grundgy music I remember, but I’m pretty sure this album is in Japanese
sooo instead I urge you to go old and find the old GreenAppleQuickstep albums Reloaded and Wonderful Virus from where ever you get things that aren’t on eMusic. . . can anyone tell me if this is even the same band :’-(
Hate to burst your bubble but whoever promised you an exclusive on the new Jay Reatard was fibbin, Amie Street also has it for sale already.
Disconnected by Greymachine is Justin Broderick of Godflesh/Jesu & Aaron Turner from Isis. Musically it is closer to a noisy early Godflesh than what Jesu and Isis have been doing lately.
Very odd but interesting Punk/Roots Rock/Blues Complilation http://www.emusic.com/album/Various-Artists-Root-Damage-MP3-Download/11573446.html
Great Fucking Deal 49 Songs 24 Credits
whoa! Nice find, Nergal!