na: the Dodos, Box Elders
Via beneffervescent
At long last — New Arrivals! With the issues with yesterday’s roll resolved, we have a modest batch of records to pore over and talk about today. Let’s skip the preamble and just go for it:
The Dodos, Time To Die – I never took much notice when The Dodos’ last album was blowing up in 2008, so I was taken pleasantly by surprise by what I found when I saw them open for the Walkmen last fall: hyperactive, trash-can-banging exuberance, hollered unison singing, Gordon-Lightfoot levels of acoustic fingerpicking. This new one feels more — settled. Focused? Indie-rock godhead Phil Ek produces, and the warmness of his touch is audible here. Here’s what Caitlin Dewey writes:
Only a year has passed since the Dodos put out their second release, but the trio has aged — and audibly — since 2008′s Visiter. Gone is the youthful exuberance of “Walking” and “Fools”; gone, too, are the taut African drum lines that earned the Dodos comparisons to Vampire Weekend, and the urgent acoustic jangle that drove them to critical acclaim. The Dodos have mellowed on this one — they’re wiser and more reserved. And as the title Time to Die might suggest, they’re a little world-weary, as well ….
Box Elders, Alice and Friends – Goofy, zero-stakes rock and roll tunes played with infectious joy by teenagers. Melissa Maerz nails it:
Go ahead, call ‘em goofballs, but no one in Omaha is having more fun making tossed-off, basement-band-practice rock’n'roll than these guys. After naming themselves for the bugs that infested their childhood house, longhaired brothers Clayton and Jeremiah McIntyre started Box Elders as a Friday night jam session with their mom on drums. They eventually replaced her with Dave Goldberg, who saw the McIntyres play a free show in the park and was so moved that he agreed to play drums and organ for them — simultaneously. Together, they inject every garage-pop rave-up on their full-length debut with the ramshackle rock and pure teenage-rapscallion joy that’s become Goner Records’ trademark.
Dark Meat, When the Shelter Came – Cover art of the day, first off. Athens, GA dudes bring the bleary-eyed, staggering Brian Jonestown Massacre grooves. Fun, but slight. A mariachi-esque horn section collides into the title track midway through, and everyone kinda all goes down together in a tangled heap.
Bottle Rockets, Lean Forward – Country-ish rainy-day jangle from Bloodshot Records. This sounds pleasant, but it maybe reminds me less of, say, The Jayhawks than of The Rembrandts or Polaris (of the Pete and Pete theme song).
Cub Country, Stretch that Skull Cover and Smile – Cub Country is the alt-country pet project (everyone has one) of Jeremy Chatelain, the former bassist for Jets To Brazil. He released a record in 2002 called High Uinta High, which has ten songs I STILL have never heard and one song I love love love: “Could Be The Moon,” a disarmingly simple and gorgeous country ballad. I was in a weird ersatz-bluegrass band with Alex for a minute in college (don’t ask. No, on second thought, please do ask) and one of our friends brought this song in — it was around the same time we were all obsessed with Billy Bragg’s Mermaid Avenue. This record doesn’t sound, on first pass, like it has anything as perfect as “Could Be The Moon,” but it sounds like a solid slab of country rock for those who really dug Blue Giant.
Slaughterhouse, Slaughterhouse – Four scowling puritan rap goobers heroically disprove the axiom about strength in numbers. Think of those terrible supergroups in the 80s stuffed with 70s arena rock legends past their prime — the Vinnie Vincent Invasion, anyone? Chickenfoot? I love me some late-’90s NY rap — if only this actually sounded like M.O.P. or CNN and not seven hundred unrelated freestyles crammed together over KOCH beats.
Zaza, Cameo – Shoegaze as Twin Peaks nightmare. Check it out.
“I was in a weird ersatz-bluegrass band with Alex for a minute in college (don’t ask. No, on second thought, please do ask)”
Details, si vous plais.
Craig
Good to see the first two TMBG albums pop up here: http://www.emusic.com/album/They-Might-Be-Giants-They-Might-Be-Giants-MP3-Download/11580919.html and http://www.emusic.com/album/They-Might-Be-Giants-Lincoln-MP3-Download/11580910.html. Wish they were both 12-credit downloads tho.
Well:
1) We covered The White Stripes’ “Hotel Yorba” and “You Ain’t Goin Nowhere” (Byrds version, course)
2) Our name was derived from a James Joyce quote from Ulysses, and
3) we once performed at a Passover Seder.
I played “fiddle.”
If only the Pete and Pete band was here. I loved that show.
Well, now I know what reunion I will push for when my next Passover seder comes around.
@DJ Adequate -
But it is!!! This album is a must-own for Pete and Pete fans….
http://www.emusic.com/album/Polaris-Music-From-The-Adventures-Of-Pete-Pete-MP3-Download/10915077.html
Ah, since it wasn’t linked I assumed it wasn’t. Now I am a happy little nerd!
I remember the episode where they had Syd Straw and Marshal Crenshaw being Little Pete’s backup band. After that I was hooked.
So, new Soundways release? This dude Sir Victor Uwaifo sounds awesome. The name of the album was enough for me to take a listen.
There’s this guy, Kashief Lindo, who’s debut album just arrived. He looks very young in the cover art, and sound pretty young too. Some choice cuts are “Hard Hard Times” and “Many Rivers To Cross”, which I think is a cover.
Two new Slumberland EPs, or small comps, or whatever it is they are. Here, and here.
“So, new Soundways release? This dude Sir Victor Uwaifo sounds awesome. The name of the album was enough for me to take a listen.”
It is awesome. Also: The Analog Africa label is here! See below.
http://www.emusic.com/album/Various-Artists-Legends-of-Benin-MP3-Download/11554843.html
I’m so hoping for more from this reissue label.
Wow, you weren’t kidding about that Dark Meat cover art.
“Box Elders” is a great, great band name.
Sir Victor = FUCKING INCREDIBLE. Don’t miss it.
ah man, Polaris! love them. also, this bonkers and disorienting Apsci album from Quannum dropped yesterday: http://www.emusic.com/album/Apsci-Best-Crisis-Ever-MP3-Download/11559800.html
sethd–thanks for pointing out the TMBG! Lincoln is one of my favorite albums ever.
I went through a TMBG re-discovery a little while ago. Can I rep hard for the song “Man, It’s So Loud in Here“? Because it’s great.
I also really like “Until My Head Falls Off” from Factory Showroom.
The great thing about Lincoln to me was that I feel like they released it before their “zaniness” kicked in full force. I feel like this record is weirdly sinister, in a good way.
Hey, Jayson Check this one out. http://www.emusic.com/album/Godilla-Jaguar-Paw-MP3-Download/11577864.html . On surface listen MC’s are good (not special but good) but the Beats are pretty fresh.
I think that this may be a gem in the rough or at least something to fill somebody’s collection. Really diggin’ on Track 9 I think I’ll grab that one, also 14 sounds pretty good and The Title Track of Jaguar Paw (track 15) too. (ah you can tell that I’m a cafeteria eMuser)
Nergal -
Nice! Thanks for the heads-up! Giving the samples a cursory spin now — the beats kinda sound like a middle ground between old-school Def Jux beats (lotsa industrial ambience) and the new school of Dilla followers. At the very least, it sounds like a more reliable trip down boom-bap nostalgia lane than Slaughterhouse, which mostly makes me never want to check Nahright.com ever again.
Yup, once again it was due to Album Art that it even caught my eye. OH goody tons of new releases today, I may be back (I still have 17 more downloads this month and so much more to sample. Fuck if the anti-sony-and-thus-anti-eMusic contingency (some of which I’ve noticed are still around um not naming names but rhymes with bamanda) doesn’t want what comes in I still do sony/not sony/known not know so (and this is a little early and not on twitter #fuckyoufriday to the losers who get scared when something they love adds something (doesn’t change much just adds (and this doesn’t mean the people with genuine price concerns just the “Anything on this list that isn’t on sony” assholes. . . bamanda
))
any Japanese music with female vocals coming soon?