July 10, 2015 —

This Week’s New Releases & Staff Picks – 7/10/15

STAFF PICKS

kimber – sarah cracknell
lindsay – heather woods broderick, nap eyes
dario – richard buckner
jeff – eztv

 

THIS WEEK’S NEW RELEASES


Between The Buried And Me – Coma Ecliptic CD/LP (Metal Blade)
Grandiose, dynamic, heavy, melodic, technically challenging: these are all words that fall equally short when trying to describe Between The Buried And Me’s sonic offerings.


Heather Woods Broderick – Glider CD (Western Vinyl)
Heather Woods Broderick excels at distilling her experiences into a soulful melancholy that’s enduring both for its intimate, relatable moments and its persistent sense of mystery. Her uncanny ear for evocative production and gorgeous vocal harmonies serves her well on her new album Glider. Throughout the album, the rich dreamlike atmospheres she creates hint at a darkness looming on the horizon, while the singularity of her ethereal voice always seems to linger long after the music has stopped. As a talented multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, Heather has had the opportunity to record and tour with plenty of incredible artists including Horse Feathers, Efterklang, and Sharon Van Etten, which has kept her moving house and traveling around the world for much of the past decade. Vinyl due August 7.


Richard Buckner – The Hill [Reissue/2000] CD/LP+MP3 (Merge)
On the 100th anniversary of Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology, Merge is reissuing the epic it inspired: Richard Buckner’s The Hill. The Hill started in 1996 in an old garage that had been converted to The Ranch Olancha Motel, a dusty place near the mouth of Death Valley, between Lone Pine and Dunmovin, CA. Buckner, who was en route to Tucson, Arizona, to record what would become Devotion & Doubt, stayed a week in a room with no phone, no television, carrying his guitar, a four-track recorder, and a copy of Masters’ Spoon River Anthology. Recorded in Edmonton, Alberta, and Tucson, The Hill converts Spoon River poems to music. (Also available for the first time on vinyl.)


Sarah Cracknell – Red Kite CD/LP (Cherry Red)
New album from the Saint Etienne frontwoman. Musically, Red Kite has a sophisticated, pastoral feel, drawing on classic ‘60s pop with less of a dance music influence than Saint Etienne.


B. Dolan – Kill The Wolf CD (Strange Famous)
Dark, raw, and confrontational, B. Dolan’s new album Kill The Wolf reinforces his status as a complex lyricist and high-powered rhyme spitter, dedicated to his vision and heedless to trends. Staunchly political and fearlessly personal, ” Kill The Wolf” brings the best techniques from B’s catalog into a new era in terms of scale and production value. Guests include Aesop Rock, Buck 65, and Kathleen Stubelek of Circle Takes The Square, as well as old friends Buddy Peace, Alias, and Cecil Otter (of Doomtree). Vinyl version due July 24.


Envy – Atheist’s Cornea CD (Temporary Residence)
First new album in five years from legendary Japanese post-hardcore band. Despite its relative brevity (at 43 minutes it is Envy’s shortest album since their early ‘90s thrash days), Atheist’s Cornea is easily the band’s most progressive work. Beginning with a punishing pummel, holes of light are gradually punched open to reveal an uncanny series of dynamic, emotionally charged epics. Vinyl version due July 24.


EZTV – Calling Out CD/LP+MP3 (Captured Tracks)
It wouldn’t be entirely accurate to say that EZTV met while trying out for J. Spaceman’s latest US touring line-up of Spiritualized, but it’s not far from the truth. Songwriter Ezra Tenenbaum had been casually working on solo home recordings in the vein of Shoes, Emitt Rhodes and Cleaners For Venus, and, in a desire to round things out, he enlisted bassist Shane O’Connell and drummer Michael Stasiak (formerly of Widowspeak). As it happened, the trio’s first chance to play together was an audition for the American touring version of Spiritualized (they didn’t get the job). But, the trio kept meeting and working, turning Ezra recording as a solo artist into Ezra, Shane and Michael playing as a band; thus, EZTV was formed.


Four Tet – Morning/Evening CD/LP (Text)
Produced by Kieran Hebden between August 2014 and February 2015, Morning/Evening was created on a laptop computer using the Ableton Live software to control and mix VST synthesizers and manipulations of found audio recordings.


Little Boots – Working Girl CD (Dim Mak)
Dance-pop sensation Little Boots delights with her third LP, Working Girl, produced by Jas Shaw of Simian Mobile Disco, super producer Ariel Rechtshaid, SZA collaborator Patrick Lukens, MNDR’s Pete Wade, and Com Truise. Filled with her signature airy vocals, uplifting melodies and clean interplay between synths and beats, the 13-song album pulls at the parameters of pop but remains true to its indie dance core. Vinyl version due August 28.


Nap Eyes – Whine Of The Mystic CD/LP+MP3 (Paradise Of Bachelors)
Nova Scotia’s Nap Eyes is the greatest band you’ve never heard, and Whine Of The Mystic is their first full-length album, a brilliant small-batch brew of crooked, literate guitar pop refracted through the gray Halifax rain. Nap Eyes’ keen sonic signature cruises briskly and beautifully along the dog-eared axes of jangle-jaded Oceanic pop music (The Clean, The Verlaines, The Go-Betweens), and through the backpages of Peter Perrett (The Only Ones, England’s Glory), via all things Lou Reed and Modern Lovers, without ever sounding very much like anything else happening today.


Planes Mistaken For Stars – Mercy [Reissue/2006] CD (Deathwish, Inc.)
Collectively PMFS combined different kinds of musical rebellion: hardcore aggression, punk energy, and gritty rock n roll spirit into their own special noise. Ultimately laying the blueprint for today’s emotional punk rock resurgence. Vinyl version due July 24.

Ed Sheeran – 5 5xCDEP (Atlantic)
Five CD box containing a quintet of EPs from the hit-making British singer/songwriter originally released separately in the UK. The five EPs contained in this set feature a total of 33 songs — both studio and live — many of which can only be found on these releases.


Superchunk – Come Pick Me Up [Reissue/1999] CD/LP+MP3 (Merge)
In March of 1999, Superchunk traveled to Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago to record the tracks that would become Come Pick Me Up. The addition of producer Jim O’Rourke allowed the group to advance their sound with more experimentation, including horn and string accompaniments. Ken Vandermark, Jeb Bishop, and Bob Weston provided the horn section (saxophone, trombone, and trumpet, respectively) while Fred Longberg-Holm and Suzanne Roberts contributed on cello and violin. “It was exciting to work in the big room downstairs at Electrical. For part of our visit we also slept there, in the dark except for lights on all the gear blinking. It snowed a ton the day we got there, and I didn’t go outside for the first five or six days we were there,” Mac recalls. “I read an interview where O’Rourke said we tried to make a two-month record in two weeks or something. I’m sure he’s right—we never wanted to spend the time or money making records the ‘proper’ way, but I like how this record came out, and it has some of my favorite songs of ours on it.”


Rachel Grimes – The Clearing LP+MP3 (Temporary Residence)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Rachel Grimes is a pianist, composer, and arranger based in Kentucky – most renowned for her work in Rachel’s, the groundbreaking chamber-rock ensemble that introduced an entire generation of underground rock fans to the unexpected similarities and appeal of neoclassical music. Grimes has toured the world as a solo pianist, and as a collaborator with chamber ensembles such as Portland Cello Project, astrïd, Cicada, The Amsterdam Sinfonietta Trio, and Orchestra Kandinskij. Unhurried, at times fleeting, and stretching into the sky,The Clearing is a winding path of transient moments exploring personal memory, relationships, and mystery from a deeply internal place.


Steve Gunn – Boerum Palace [Reissue/2009] LP+MP3 (Three Lobed)
Boerum Palace is Steve Gunn’s second album, originally released in 2009. The album starts off with a headlong rush into the hypnotic “Mr. Franklin.” Gunn’s fluid playing style, especially as portrayed within this track, provides ample space for the development of infectious musical themes. The track ends in a dexterous duel between Gunn’s guitar and guest Marc Orleans’ (of D. Charles Speer & The Helix, Sunburned Hand Of The Man) vicious pedal steel. The album mixes Gunn’s long-form blues/raga/psych explorations alongside briefer cuts that equally display his songcraft.


United Nations – United Nations [Reissue/2008] LP (Temporary Residence)
Originally released in 2008, United Nations’ eponymous debut album was destined for commercial controversy from the moment it was announced. The anticipation surrounding its release was at a fever pitch as rumors circulated that the enigmatic band’s all-star lineup included members of Thursday, Glassjaw, and Converge. When the album finally dropped, its lawsuitbaiting artwork — essentially the originally cover of The Beatles’ Abbey Road album, with all of the Beatles engulfed in flames — immediately forced at least one major mall retail chain (rhymes with Not Tropic) to destroy all of the several thousands of copies it had ordered. The album’s entire pressing was then recalled, destroyed, and repackaged with artwork presumably less offensive to Sir Paul and Co. The vinyl has been out of print ever since, and that original artwork has become more myth than material.


NEXT WEEK’S NEW RELEASES


TAME IMPALA – Currents CD/LP
JASON ISBELL – Something More Than Free CD/LP
IRON AND WINE + BEN BRIDWELL – Sing Into My Mouth CD/LP
BIRD AND THE BEE – Recreational Love CD/LP
FLO MORRISSEY – Tomorrow Will Be Beautiful CD/LP
MS MR – How Does It Feel CD/LP
CHEMICAL BROTHERS – Born In The Echoes CD/LP
ALOKE – Alive CD
GALACTIC – Into The Dump CD/LP
RATATAT – Magnifique  CD/LP
CARLTON MELTON – Out To Sea CD
COCTEAU TWINS – Pink Opaque LP reissue
COCTEAU TWINS – Tiny Dynamite/Echoes In A Shallow Bay LP reissue