STAFF PICKS

kimber – david bazan
lindsay – papa m
dario – lnzndrf
jeff – david bazan

THIS WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
Daniel BachmanDaniel Bachman CD/LP+MP3 (Three Lobed)
Guitarist and former wunderkind Daniel Bachman, at 26, can no longer be considered “precocious.” On even his earliest recordings Bachman’’s guitar prowess and compositional voice were staggeringly mature. His growth has been continual and, frankly, amazing — the ultimate product of this growth, 2015’’s River, showed a phenomenal level of maturity and, in turn, continued to convert faithful. His new self-titled album continues that staggering growth — in composition, sound, and technique — and offers a sort of trapped in amber glimpse of where he presently stands. It is a full and complete collection of truly engrossing songs that sees Bachman’s sonic arsenal expand to include elements of drone (generated by all acoustic instruments) and field recordings alongside his ever-present prowess and strength on the acoustic guitar.
 
Balkan BeatboxShout It Out CD/LP (Digital Monkey)
Fifth album from the Israeli musical group founded by Tamir Muskat, Ori Kaplan and now including Tomer Yosef as a core member. Balkan Beatbox plays Mediterranean-influenced music that incorporates Jewish, Eastern Europe and Middle Eastern traditions, Gypsy punk, reggae and electronica. On Shout It Out the band delve deeper into their reggae influences than on recent offerings.
 
Bright EyesDigital Ash In A Digital Urn [Reissue/2005] CD/LP+MP3/Cassette (Saddle Creek)
Bright EyesI’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning [Reissue/2005] CD/LP+MP3/Cassette (Saddle Creek)
Bright Eyes Cassadaga [Reissue/2007] CD/2xLP+MP3/Cassette (Saddle Creek)
Remastered reissues now available (these titles were included in The Studio Albums 2000-2011 box set).


Dead Can DanceGarden Of Arcane Delights/The John Peel Sessions [Reissue/1984] CD/2xLP (4AD)
Garden Of The Arcane Delights is the only EP released by Dead Can Dance, coming out in 1984 and acting as a bridge between their first two albums. Its sleeve a sketch by Brendan Perry, depicting “primal man deprived of perception, standing within the confines of a garden containing a fountain and trees laden with fruit… a Blakean universe in which mankind can only redeem itself, can only rid itself of blindness, through the correct interpretation of signs and events that permeate the fabric of nature’s laws.” This new expanded version sees the EP faithfully pressed on to one piece of a vinyl with a second disc being added, compiling both of the band’s sessions for John Peel, recorded in the same time period. Single CD version also available.
 
 
Cory HansonThe Unborn Capitalist From Limbo CD/LP (Drag City)
Solo debut full-length from Wand’s Cory Hanson. “Cory‘s songs stand in stark contrast to the all-or-everything hive-mind of Wand, and the austere nature of the arrangement Cory on acoustic, with sparing rhythmic accompaniment and a careful use of string quartet – lends weight to the straightforward narratives wove into the songs. Tales of apartments being torn apart; walking in nature; escape from a sealed bag; people fornicating and drowning as mom floats in space. Terrible things are happening here – but dry-eyed Cory details savagery and seeming non-sequitur with compassion and perseverance, as the strings color the space around the songs him with inflections from phases of pop music, all of which evokes the mission style of his homeland, the sunny (yet-shadowy) south of California.” – The Fat Angel Sings
 
The Hold SteadyAlmost Killed Me [Reissue/2004] CD/LP+MP3 (French Kiss)
The Hold SteadySeparation Sunday [Reissue/2005] CD/LP+MP3 (French Kiss)
Remastered from the original tapes with bonus material. [Limited color vinyl pressings also available with bonus tracks available via accompanying download: Almost Killed Me (blue) and Separation Sunday (white).]


Steve Kilbey and Martin KennedyInside We Are The Same CD/LP (Inevitable Recordings)
New collaboration between The Church mainman Steve Kilbey and All India Radio founder Martin Kennedy. Lush atmospherics blend with soaring space-rock and blissful melodies over 11 tracks.
 
Kula Shaker K [Reissue/1996] CD/LP (BMG Rights Management)
With a blend of ‘60s rocking, Britpop and Indian mysticism, K was born from the influences of George Harrison, The Grateful Dead, The Kinks, Deep Purple and the Doors. The album combined an onslaught of volume, overdriven guitars, and catchy melodies resulting in an album that remains an excellent blast of colorful neo-psychedelia. It produced four classic hit singles including “Grateful When You’re Dead,” “Tattva,” “Hey Dude” and “Govinda” and became the fastest selling British debut album of 1996.
 
John Lennon and Yoko OnoUnfinished Music No. 1. Two Virgins [Reissue/1968] CD/LP (Secretly Canadian)
John Lennon and Yoko OnoUnfinished Music No. 2. Life With The Lions [Reissue/1968] CD/LP (Secretly Canadian)
Two Virgins is a curious and amazing suite recorded over one weekend in Spring 1968 at Lennon’s Kenwood home: Distant conversations; comedic role playing and footsteps; laughter, birdcalls and plunking piano lines; silly songs and space; tape delay stretching shrieks, bass rumbles and moans to the moon and back again. The now-iconic cover (featuring Ono and
Lennon standing nude together) notwithstanding, nothing about Two Virgins is safe. It would be a risky move today for artists in the larger, pop culture conversation just as it was a risky move in 1968. But this is an uncomfortably private, two-person dialogue about – and celebration of – experimentation, inspiration and play. And these two souls bravely let us look through the keyhole. 1969’s Life With The Lions is the sound of Ono and Lennon validating their love as something impenetrable and timeless. It’s when we, the listener, begin to fully understand that the scope of their recording efforts was much more than a recording collaboration, and something closer to a performative documentary, a declaration of “Our life and our love is our art – every nitty, gritty part of it.”
 
Yoko OnoYoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band [Reissue/1971] CD/LP (Secretly Canadian)
This long-overdue vinyl reissue of Yoko Ono’s seminal, but massively under-appreciated Plastic Ono Band has all the makings of a classic rock nostalgia trip: Ono, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Klaus Voorman and free-jazz legend Ornette Coleman. All the pieces are here to stir up a dangerous amount of nostalgia. But once the needle drops, the record achieves something exactly perpendicular to nostalgia. Released in 1971, the album not only influenced the approach of other musicians for decades, it also sounds absolutely modern 44 years out, eternally fresh despite the forward march of time. Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band not only predicted the intersection of the avant-garde and rock that would take place in the second half of that decade, the album would sound right at home at where that intersection is happening today.
 
Sleigh BellsJessica Rabbit CD/LP+MP3 (Torn Clean)
“There’s a point in every party where things start to come unglued. The hour is in doubt. Revelry dissolves into a disjointed blur. Altered states of consciousness have begun to fade, but the ground hasn’t yet rushed up to break the fall. Jessica Rabbit is the sound of that limbo. The fourth album by the duo known as Sleigh Bells is a 14-song testament to the power of a celebration gone weird. Where the duo’s first three albums trafficked in huge beats, huge guitars and huge hooks, the new record takes these elements and chops them up. Then re-sequences them. Then uses that as the raw material for a scathing, fragmentary kind of pop. On ‘Throw Me Down The Stairs,’ singer Alexis Krauss stalks the perimeter of the song with a seething edge to her voice: ‘I’m kicking dirt, pulling down trees / One by one,’ she explodes, just as multi-instrumentalist Derek Miller slices and dices riffs and rhythms into a hash of haywire electronics. But it also dips abruptly into quiet, melodic passages of reprieve — a formula used throughout the album, most effectively on ‘Rule Number One,’ whose abrasive, industrial-glam stomp gives way to a lighter-waving anthem of a coda. All those whiplash changes within each song take a while to get used to. But once you’ve caught on, it makes for a delirious rush.” – KRCB


Still CornersDead Blue CD/LP (Wrecking Light)
Summer’s end is greeted with the arrival of Dead Blue, a fittingly dark and introspective third LP from dream-pop duo Still Corners. Written in a house along the English seaside, the album owes its name to the waters resting just beyond the window. Greg and Tessa—who formed the project in 2009 and went on to release two acclaimed records with Sub Pop—chose the quiet locale, in contrast to London, as a means of resetting and slowing down. The material that came to be is a self-described exploration of inner fears and desires; a “haunting, brooding return,” says longtime fan Gorilla Vs. Bear.


WakratWakrat CD/LP (Earache)
Founded by bassist/vocalist Tim Commerford, responsible for arguably the most iconic protest song in the last 30 years during his time with Rage Against The Machine, the band Wakrat is two French nationals and one American anarchist, namely guitarist/vocals Laurent Grangeon and drummer Mathias Wakrat. With a tight mix of punchy, rhythmic and dynamic punk rock, fueled by political dissent and an undiminished subversion and questioning of authority, Wakrat provides a much needed battle cry of societal angst wrapped in sonic urgency.
 
Mike WattRing Spiel Tour ’95 Live CD/2xLP (Sony)
Archive live release recorded at Metro in Chicago in 1995 and featuring an all-star backing band consisting of Dave Grohl and William Goldsmith on drums and Pat Smear and Eddie Vedder on guitar.
 
Wolf PeopleRuins CD/LP+MP3 (Jagjaguwar)
Wolf People are time travelers, their tools mythology, history, hauntology, big riffs, bigger beats, electricity. Influences upon Ruins come in all shapes, size, contours and hues: the discovery of proto Sabbath/Zeppelin Scottish band Iron Claw, the lesser known landscapes of rural Bedfordshire, backstage Taekwondo stretches, Scandinavian psychedelia, fleeting rural epiphanies, Dungen, Trees, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, and a group holiday on a remote Finnish island. Limited clear pressing.


Autechre – Incunabula [Reissue/1993] 2xLP+MP3 (Warp)
AutechreAmber [Reissue/1994] 2xLP+MP3 (Warp)
AutechreTri Repetae [Reissue/1995] 2xLP+MP3 (Warp)
The first three albums from IDM pioneers Autechre are back in print on vinyl.
 
Lou BarlowApocalypse Fetish 10”+MP3 (Joyful Noise)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. The Dinosaur Jr. bassist and all-around indie rock icon releases an all-ukulele EP. Clear vinyl pressing.
 
Alejandro EscovedoBurn Something Beautiful 2xLP (Fantasy)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Alejandro Escovedo is the definition of a songwriter’s songwriter. While his own career has been a modest success, the biggest names in music adore the guy’s work. Bruce Springsteen calls him up at his own shows, and has appeared on Escovedo’s recordings. Ryan Adams and Whiskeytown featured him as a vocalist on several songs during the band’s active years. R.E.M. lead guitarist Peter Buck is a frequent tour-mate—and he’s also the co-writer and co-producer of Escovedo’s new album, Burn Something Beautiful. Escovedo and Buck were joined on the writing front by indie rock hero Scott McCaughey (The Minus Five), and the three had a deep collaborative process when writing songs on the album. The result is a thirteen-track set that—if single ‘Heartbeat Smile’ is any indication—recalls both vintage Escovedo and the pop-rock sensibilities of his collaborators.” – Texas Monthly
 
The FaintCapsule: 1999-2016 3xLP (Saddle Creek)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Seventeen years ago, The Faint ushered in the return of synthesizers to the modern musical landscape with the release of 1999’s Blank-Wave Arcade. The world took note and the dance-rock movement of the early ‘00s followed in its wake. In the ensuing years, the band’s consistent evolution cemented their status as one of the most forward thinking and influential forces in dance-rock. Capsule: 1999-2016, surveys The Faint’s most renowned output over that time span, while also looking at what the future holds for the acclaimed Omaha electro-punks. 17 tracks from the era are included in this retrospective, with contributions from Blank-Wave Arcade, Danse Macabre, Wet From Birth, Fasciinatiion, Doom Abuse, and 2016’s “Young & Realistic” single; as well as two brand new songs, “Skylab1979” and “ESP


Jamie LidellBuilding A Beginning LP (Jajulin)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. British poly-genre wizard Jamie Lidell’s Building A Beginning is his sixth album and follow-up to 2013’s wild-eyed self-titled effort. Whereas his last album was a full-body immersion into strident electro and pop sounds, Building A Beginning is Lidell purifying himself in the waters of smooth, earthy psychedelic soul think the subtle low end of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, the swirling loveliness of Temptations’ Cloud Nine, and the beatific radiance of Steve Wonder, all imbued with Lidell’s distinctive songwriting touch and impossibly gorgeous vocals. Much of the album addresses the duality of romantic and familial love, with his new family playing a major role in its creation. Not only did his wife, Lindsey Rome, assist and writing many of the lyrics, but their newborn son was a major inspiration. No song makes that more clear than the LP’s latest single, “Julian”. Over bright, hopeful neo-soul, Lidell croons about how welcoming his now-one-year-old son has changed his outlook on life. “Now you’re here and life’s a dream/ You’re the only reality worth understanding,” he sings as he leads into the first chorus of, “I can’t believe/ The way your face/ Is taking over, taking the place/ Of all the dark I always face.”
 
LNZNDRFGreen Roses 12” (4AD)
LNZNDRF – the trio of Ben Lanz and brothers Bryan and Scott Devendorf –release two brand new songs on this limited edition white 12” vinyl.


Papa MHighway Songs CD/LP/Cassette (Drag City)
Beloved Slint-guitarist David Pajo has dusted off one of his best projects, Papa M, for a new album. “Classic Pajolian magma simmering to a crispy boil in a series of 21st century blues, broke folk, ur-metal and verite diary sketches made somewhere between the mental ward and the intensive care unit.”


Temple Of The DogTemple Of The Dog [Reissue/1991] 2xLP (Interscope)
Recently reissued on CD – now available on vinyl. 25th anniversary reissue of Temple Of The Dog’s landmark, platinum certified 1991 album — a tribute to Andrew Wood, the former lead singer of Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone, who died on March 19, 1990 of a heroin overdose. Newly mixed by Brendan O’Brien, this reissue is available in four configurations, including Regular single-disc, a double-disc set including demos and unreleased tracks, and a four-disc Super Deluxe set featuring a total of 48 unreleased tracks and/or mixes.
 
David BazanDark Sacred Night CD/LP+MP3 (Suicide Squeeze)
David BazanChristmas Bonus LP+MP3 (Suicide Squeeze)
“There is something that is underrepresented in Christmas music, and that’s just how uncomfortable the holidays can be for a lot of folks,” David Bazan says about his collection of holiday songs Dark Sacred Night. Back in 2002, David Dickenson of Suicide Squeeze Records approached Bazan and asked if he would be interested in doing a 7″ of Christmas carols. The result was the “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day” b/w “Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel” single released under Bazan’s Pedro The Lion moniker. He followed it up with “The First Noel” 7″ in 2003 and “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” in 2005. Even after retiring the Pedro The Lion project, Bazan continued his run of Yuletide singles for Suicide Squeeze under his own name. These limited edition 7″s are all long out of print, but David Bazan and Suicide Squeeze have chosen ten of the fourteen tracks, remixed and remastered the material, and collected them on Dark Sacred Night. David Bazan’s Christmas Bonus is a limited edition one-sided 12″ that serves as a companion piece to Bazan’s Dark Sacred Night. Pressed on white vinyl, the B-side features an etching of a wreath.


NEXT WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
JUSTICE – Woman CD/LP
TORI AMOS – Boys For Pele Reissue CD/LP
HIGHLY SUSPECT – Boy That Died Wolf CD
METALLICA – Hard Wired CD/LP
SOUNDGARDEN – Badmotorfinger CD/LP reissue (free tote bag with purchase!)
SOLANGE – Seat At The Table CD
JAY SOM – Turn Into CD
PINK MARTINI – Je Dis Oui CD
ROBERT EARL KEEN – Live Dinner Reunion CD
SONNY KNIGHT + THE LAKERS – Sooner Or Later CD/LP
SAINT ETIENNE – Presents Songs For A London Winter CD
BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE – Feel Good Lost LP reissue
ELECTRIC SIX – Fresh Blood For Tired Vampires LP
MOBY +VOID – Pacific Choice- These Systems Are Failing LP
PHISH – Big Boat LP  (free art poster with purchase!)