Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Repressed!: First Three Wilco Albums


Nonesuch must be as excited about the new Wilco album as we are because on June 2nd they will be releasing new 180 gram versions of A.M., Being There and Summerteeth.

Wilco is another band whose early releases are a scarcity when it comes to finding them on vinyl. I actually snagged a sealed copy of Being There a few years ago, but these other two are suspiciously absent on the shelf.

A.M. will be a single LP while Being There and Summerteeth are both doubles. Each release will also include a CD version of the album.

You can pre-order now at Insound or Aural Exploits.

"Passenger Side", from A.M.:



"Outtasite (Outta Mind)", from Being There:



"We're Just Friends", from Summerteeth:

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Grizzly Bear, "Two Weeks" 12"


Grizzly Bear will preface their new full length Veckatimest with a 12" single for "Two Weeks". This will include two Fred Falke remixes of the song. You can preorder it now through Insound.

"Two Weeks", Live on Letterman:



Veckatimest will be released May 26th on Warp.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Notable Vinyl Releases for 05.05.09


Let's all welcome the latest Pink Mountaintops release, Outside Love, into our record collections this week. No matter what band Stephen McBean decides to release albums as, he hasn't made a single misstep yet. And if he has, he's buried it so far into the backwoods no one will ever fucking find it.

You can purchase this one through Jagjaguwar.

"While We Were Dreaming":







Akron/Family. The band that won me over 15 seconds into the first live song I heard them play. The plan was to listen to a song or two and split so I could get a good night's sleep. By the end of the first song I knew I was staying until they were done playing. What a great time that was.

While it's very hard to capture that kind of live performance on record, I do quite enjoy the music this band makes and they have a fan for life in me. Unless they start to really suck. But that probably won't happen.

Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free is a double LP and is being released by Dead Oceans.

"River"




Mastodon releases Crack The Skye on vinyl today and it comes in two versions. The easier one to find will probably be the "high quality" regular pressing. Does that mean 180 gram? Not sure.The more limited option is a one time 45 rpm double LP pressing with a gatefold sleeve. Either way you probably can't go wrong, but you'll probably want to play this one pretty loud so if you can snag the second option do it.




The "You're Probably Shit Out Of Luck" prize this week goes to the new ISIS release Wavering Radiant. As with most Hydra Head releases this came in a myriad of colors including blue, yellow, a clear version pressed and sold exclusively at Vacation and the import picture disc shown below. All of these appear to be sold out as of right now. You're not really surprised about that, are you?

The good news is you can stream the entire new album over on their MySpace page while you are searching for these on eBay.



That about does it for this week's releases. Go buy some wax.

Damien Jurado @ Spaceland, 05.03.09

Damien Jurado is one of my favorite singer-songwriters of the last ten years and has been ever since I stumbled upon On My Way To Absence when it first came out a few years ago. Despite being a big fan of his I've actually only seen him perform once at the Knitting Factory around the same time that I first discovered his music. Damien's been back to Los Angeles several times since but something would always seem to get in my way and I would miss the show. I finally caught up with him again last night at Spaceland.

After playing live with a full band the past few years, Damien is keeping it simple this time around. It's just him, his chair and his acoustic guitar. Seeing him with a full band previously, it was nice to hear the songs a little differently this time. Band or no band he still belts out his lyrics with enough commitment that he communicates the emotion that's ever-present in each line.

I forgot how damn funny he is too. In between songs he joked about how he's really not as depressed as his songs make him sound and that he mainly writes in the third person. At one point he pulled out a magazine that had a BMI ad that listed out several independent artists, himself included. The only problem was they put someone else's picture over his name. He played for a little over an hour and there wasn't one nonessential song in the entire set.

Damien's the type of artist that has seemingly flown under the buzz radar his entire career. I have several friends who, based on their taste in music, should by all rights be big fans of his but when his name comes up they always say something to the effect of "Oh yeah...I've heard of him." Damien seems more than ok with that though. He knows that his songs reach the people they reach and those people appreciate the heartfelt music he creates and in the end that's all that really matters.

Here's a couple songs from his latest release Caught In The Trees:

"Gillian Was A Horse"

"Caskets"



Dig into Damien's back catalog over at his current label Secretly Canadian and his previous one, Sub Pop.

Future of the Left, Travels With Myself And Another


Cardiff band
mclusky came and went without ever really landing on my radar, but the band that Andy "Falco" Falkous and Jack Egglestone went on to form after certainly caught my attention. The pair joined up with Kelson Mathias (ex-Jarcrew) and became Future of the Left.

Their debut album, Curses, came out in the fall of 2007 and has been a fairly consistent listen of mine ever since. News comes that their sophomore release is called Travels With Myself And Another and is set to release June 23rd on 4AD.

They also have a brand new song for us to listen to:

“Arming Eritrea"

Additionally there's already a video available for another track from the new album,"The Hope That House Built":



"Manchasm", from Curses:

Phosphorescent: Live on KEXP

Phosphorescent live on KEXP at The Cutting Room Studios NYC from KEXP RADIO on Vimeo.



Performing "The Last Thing I Needed (First Thing This Morning)" and "At Death, A Proclamation" from To Willie and Pride respectively.

Both albums are out now on Dead Oceans and both get the highest possible recommendation.

See more live KEXP performances over on their Vimeo page.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Sonic Youth, "Sacred Trickster" and "Antenna" on Later...With Jools Holland 04.01.09



Sonic Youth performed on Later...With Jools Holland again on Friday night. We see two more songs from The Eternal get the live treatment. This time it's "Sacred Trickster" and "Antenna".

The Eternal is out on June 9th via Matador.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Young Widows / Melt-Banana Split 7"


Young Widows have their second (in a series of four) 7" splits up for pre-order over on the Temp Res site. This one features Japanese noise rockers Melt-Banana on the flip.

All four splits contain previously unreleased songs from Young Widows, with a different one of their favorite artists providing a song for side B. I picked up the first split with Bonnie "Prince" Billy a few weeks back and it's great stuff. Pelican and My Star will round out the series for splits three and four.

Each one is strictly limited to 2,000 pieces so you should get while the getting is good.

Young Widows, "Old Skin":



Check out Melt-Banana over at their MySpace page.

Faux Hoax, Your Friends Will Carry You Home


Faux Hoax is made up of Danny Seim (Menomena), Dave Allen (Gang of Four) and John Askew (Tracker). The trio got together a few years ago and recorded a few songs, which they are now releaseing.

Take a listen to "Your Friends Will Carry You Home" over on their MySpace page. They have a remix of that song and a second one, "Hippies", over at Muxtape. Sounds rad!

Polyvinyl is releasing their first 7" in May. Pre-order it here.