attn europe: bar/none!

This week, around ninety (!) titles from the esteemed Bar/None Records were untethered from their regional restrictions and let loose to European customers. Below I’ve highlighted some key catalog additions, but check out the B/N label page for a more robust account.

Of Montreal, Horse And Elephant Eatery (No Elephants Allowed) The Singles And Songles Album: Oh, Kevin Barnes. Before he was riding onstage on a horse as his glam-pop superhero alter-ego, he was churning out sickly-sweet Beatles-y song cycles, like this record and the irrepressible The Gay Parade. Grab a lollipop and download.

Yo La Tengo, Fakebook: The dek for Jay Ruttenberg’s eMusic review kinda nails it here: “Rock band as rock fans: the ultimate indie statement.” The cover-ees on Fakebook are all over the place (and usually pretty obscure) but YLT’s breezy, unassuming sound makes this an incredibly satisfying, fun listen.

The Mendoza Line, If They Knew This Was The End: Synthesizing the strains of ’90s southern indie rock (sometimes twangy, often jangly), Mendoza Line’s debut is very nice music. It sounds homespun and kinda damaged, but always tuneful.

Petra Haden, The Who Sell Out: This is an odd one. Petra Haden, violinist of ’90s alt mainstays that dog. not only tackled the entirety of Sell Out, she did it all with just her voice. Rather than taking the swirling Bjork-ian vocal-only route, Haden’s Sell Out is a light, quirky set. It sure sounds like she had a lot of fun trying to replicate all of the Who’s various mod-pop shenanigans.

V/A, Hello Radio – The Songs of They Might Be Giants: Quite a lineup — Frank Black, The Long Winters, The Wrens, OK GO.

Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, Vintage Slide Collections From Seattle, Vol. 1: The kinda creepy/kinda cute family band’s fractured ’60s-y pop tunes based on strangers’ vacation slides. A neat conceptual gambit. For me, I gotta admit, it’s borderline torture.

Eszter Balint, Mud: The actress from cool-guy Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise sings over some Waits-ian, dark and swampy blues-rock. As BFrank’s user review perfectly summarizes: “Doesn’t get more ‘downtown’.”

Epic Soundtracks, Sleeping Star: 1/2 of Swell Maps’ tottering piano ballads. Total Joe bait.

Other notables include the well-loved Americana of Freedy Johnston’s Can You Fly, Mason Jenning’s political sophomore album Birds Flying Away and K. McCarty’s Daniel Johnson cover album Dead Dog’s Eyeball.