January 27, 2017 —

This Week’s New Releases & Staff Picks – 1/27/17

STAFF PICKS

kimber – mark eitzel
lindsay – ty segall, tift merritt
dario – animal collective reissue
jeff – cloud nothings, the holydrug couple
dominic – gabriel garzón-montano

THIS WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
 
Avalanches – Since I Left You 2LP (Astralwerks)
Limited edition, blue, double vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. The 2000 debut album from the Australian electronic outfit. Playful, twisted, psychedelic, sampledelic, delirious and infectious, it’s the sound of six men who spent most of adolescence rummaging through bargain bins in Melbourne’s record shops, constructing their own post-modern disco-pop amalgam from rubbish ’50s rejects and saccharine ’60s pap. “Our records make sense in their own world,” says Robbie Chater, the group’s baby-faced spokesman. “We always wanted to make a record with a life of it’s own that you could lose yourself in.”Since I Left You was received favorably by the critics. It peaked in the Top 30 on the ARIA Albums Chart, #12 in Norway, #8 on the UK Album Charts and, in the United States, at #10 on the Top Electronic Albums chart and in the top 40 on the Top Heatseekers chart.

 

Vic Chesnutt – Little [1990] LP (New West)
For the first time, Vic Chesnutt’s seminal debut album has been remastered and pressed on vinyl, complete with five bonus tracks. Originally produced by R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, Little was the world’s introduction to Vic. Recorded and mixed in less than 24 hours, the recordings are sparse but potent and offer a glimpse into the mind of the now-revered songwriter who would have a prolific two-decade output. “Little served notice of Chesnutt’s singular gift for finding deep truths in the commonplace, and unfurled his affectionate embrace of the sad and funny foibles that comprise the bulk of our lives.” — No Depression
 
Cloud Nothings – Life Without Sound CD/LP+MP3 (Carpark)
Dylan Baldi maintains simple, admirable standards in quality. “A thing I like to do with all of my records is drive around with them,” the 25-year-old Cloud Nothings frontman says. “In high school, I would listen to music for hours like that: just driving through the suburbs of Cleveland. And if it sounds good to me in that context and I can think of high school me listening to it and saying, ‘That’s okay,’ I feel good about the record. This is the one that felt best.” “This” is Life Without Sound, the radiant, far-far-better-than-okay fourth full-length his rock outfit has recorded since he began writing and releasing songs on his own under the Cloud Nothings alias in 2008. You can hear it in the aerodynamic guitar pop of album tracks “Modern Act,” and feel it in the devastating wisdom of “Internal World,” a lullaby-like howler that dwells on “the fact that being yourself can be uncomfortable and even potentially dangerous at times.” “Generally, it seems like my work has been about finding my place in the world,” Baldi says. “But there was a point in which I realized that you can be missing something important in your life, a part you didn’t realize you were missing until it’s there—hence the title. This record is like my version of new age music,” he adds. “It’s supposed to be inspiring.” It is. [Limited green marbled color vinyl edition also available.]

 

Allison Crutchfield – Tourist In This Town CD/LP+MP3/Cassette (Merge)
Alabama native Allison Crutchfield has immersed herself in music since her teenage years, forming notable bands such as P.S. Eliot and Bad Banana (both with her twin sister Katie of Waxahatchee). In 2012, she co-founded Swearin’—the band in which she would truly begin to formulate and understand her full potential as a songwriter. Tourist In This Town recorded with Jeff Zeigler, who is known for his work with Kurt Vile, Steve Gunn, and Mary Lattimore, among others. His synthesizer collection and related expertise proved an alluring draw for Crutchfield, who had started incorporating synths into her work when she branched off into a solo career. “This album marked a sonic transition in the way I think about the element of space in music, and I attribute that mainly to Jeff,” says Allison. “His arsenal and knowledge of analog synths, along with his ear for spatial addition and subtraction within a song, really sculpted this album and impacted me artistically forever.” “Tourist In This Town is completely made up of heightened anxiety and became a clearly defined puzzle that I slowly put together over the course of a year,” says Crutchfield. “It’s a record about change—change of scenery, of partner, of band, of home, of friends, of outlook—and how that change can cause a temporary panic but ultimate triumph in most of us.”

 

Delicate Steve – This Is Steve CD/LP+MP3 (ANTI-)
“Don’t let the cheesy artwork fool you, Steve is one talented guy. There are few instrumentalists out there who can say they have worked with everyone from David Byrne to Mac DeMarco, Tame Impala to Paul Simon. His latest album is an instrumental tour de force showcasing his musical talents, having played and produced everything himself. Steve has the uncanny ability to pen catchy and memorable instrumental tracks in a way that few can. ‘Tomorrow’ is a mellow slice of southern rock, whilst ‘Nightlife’ boasts hints of funk and reggae. ‘Driving’ drifts by as a wispy folk interlude and the full throttle ‘Cartoon Rock’ sounds like Houses of the Holy era Led Zeppelin on drugs… well, more drugs than normal anyway. This Is Steve plays like a musical resume, detailing his eclectic tastes and diverse talents in a short space of time.” – Bellwood Music
 
Mark Eitzel – Hey Mr. Ferryman CD/LP+MP3 (Merge)
Hey Mr. Ferryman is Eitzel’s first full studio album recorded entirely in London. It was made at 355 Studios with Mercury Prize winner Bernard Butler (ex-Suede, McAlmont & Butler), who has produced and/or recorded albums with Tricky, Ben Watt, Bert Jansch, Edwyn Collins, and more. Butler producedHey Mr Ferryman and played all of the electric guitar, bass, and keyboard parts on the album. It features the vivid melodies long associated with Eitzel’s former band American Music Club—which remains a cult favorite to this day—as well as Butler’s distinctive guitar that serves to complement Eitzel’s expressive vocals. Of that voice, Pitchfork once wrote: “If Leonard Cohen’s voice is a story about the passage of time and Levon Helm’s is a story about losing what is most precious to you, Eitzel’s is about the circuitous roads we take in search of ourselves.” “The songs on this record are about celebrating musicians and music, about misogyny, the long shadow of history, getting one’s head out of one’s ass,” quips Eitzel on the themes of Ferryman. “Also oceans, blood, skies, hearts, gay pioneers, carpenters, weeping women, and how death waits for you even in the happiest place on earth: Las Vegas.”
 
Emptyset – Borders CD/LP+MP3 (Thrill Jockey)
Emptyset is the innovative electronic duo of James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas. The duo composes within a complex set of self-imposed parameters or rule sets and the results of their expeditions on Borders are at once minimal and visceral. Focusing on shifting timbral changes over melody, Emptyset’s work is an exploration of the relationship between rhythm, texture and space. “Borders meets a brutalist aesthetic that’s been going around in British techno for a while now, but Emptyset stand out from that crowd due to the poetry in their reductionism.” — Uncut
 
 
Gabriel Garzón-Montano – Jardín CD (Stones Throw)
Gabriel Garzón-Montano is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist with a progressive, often breezy, and slightly psychedelic sound firmly rooted in soul and funk. A Brooklyn-born and raised child of immigrant parents, Gabriel’s aesthetic is an extension of his French-Colombian heritage. His influence is a pastiche of Bach sonatas, Cumbia records, and the machine gun funk that echoes up and down Nostrand Ave. He recorded Jardín with his mentor, analog guru Henry Hirsch, at Waterfront Studios in Hudson, NY in 2016. Gabriel tracked drums, bass, guitar, piano, and synthesizers direct to 2-inch tape, adding percussion, digital programming, and several layers of his own vocals to create a lush sonic environment that recalls a contemporary, streetwiseJourney Through The Secret Life Of Plants. “I wanted to make music that would remind people how beautiful life is – how delicate their hearts are,” says Garzón-Montano. “A garden is full of life, and growth, and beauty. I named the album Jardín hoping for it to create a space for healing when people put it on. I’ve always wanted to make music that is healing, comforting, and funky.”
 
Rayna Gellert – Workin’s Too Hard CD (StorySound)
On 2012’s Old Light: Songs From My Childhood & Other Gone Worlds, old-time fiddler Rayna Gellert first established herself as a songwriter and vocalist.Workin’s Too Hard, her latest collection of original and traditional songs, carries that promise forward, along a tradition now of her own devising, and demonstrates how deep immersion in our musical past can point the way toward the future of American music.
 

Half Japanese – Hear The Lions Roar CD/LP+MP3 (Fire)
Half Japanese shines like a beacon to those looking beyond rock’s accepted molds. Emerging around 1975 as a brotherly duo, the gradually expanding and shifting outfit has amassed one of modern music’s more unusual yet dependably comforting discographies. After a long hiatus, leader and sole constant member Jad Fair snapped the group back to action in 2014 and they’ve been busy ever since. Hear The Lions Roar is their 16th album. “This is a beautiful album, full of tight three minute tracks. It has the sixties’ sound of The 13th Floor Elevators but with humor and fun. It doesn’t sound old, it sounds right. There are plenty of rackety guitars and keyboards as well as Gilles-Vincent Rieder’s reliable and assertive drumming. Fair also has the voice of a far younger man, a youthful Michael Stipe” – God Is In The TV Zine. [Limited color vinyl pressing also available.]

 

Horse Thief – Trials & Truths CD/LP+MP3 (Bella Union)
Two years after their widely feted Bella Union album debut Fear In Bliss, Oklahoma quintet Horse Thief have created another surging, crafted beauty inTrials & Truths. Introduced to Bella Union through the band’s friends/admirers The Flaming Lips,  Horse Thief released Fear In Bliss, with Clash Music noting, “punchy riffs and sunshine  melodies, lovely harmonies and production” while The Line Of Best Fit heard how, “twinkling guitars and keys sashay around Neal’s tender voice, creating a  warm, melodic bath of sound. It’s a thing of beauty.” Trials & Truths’ unified feel still contains many contrasting elements, sounding both panoramic and nuanced, intimate and anthemic and vibrant and contemplative, while frontman Cameron Neal’s lyrics range from the confessional to the metaphorical as he surveys the passing of time. “All the songs have guided me through the writing process and comforted me, which is part of what the whole record is contemplating – making something to comfort someone, to write songs they can relate to. And with this record, the band is in a great place.”
 

Japandroids – Near To The Wild Heart Of Life CD/LP+MP3 (ANTI-)
Japandroids is a two-piece band from Vancouver, BC., which began in 2006 and consists of Brian King and David Prowse. The duo consists of one guitar, one set of drums, and two vocalizers, yet are maximal in their delivery; a two- piece band sounding like a five-piece band. Like their prior albums Post-Nothing (2009) and Celebration Rock (2012), Near To The Wild Heart Of Life is comprised of eight songs. This is because eight songs is the standard template for a great rock ‘n’ roll album. “Rock ‘n’ roll so often boils down to simple pursuits: the search for love, sex, escape, revenge, satisfaction, or some signifier of freedom and home. But for Brian King and David Prowse of Japandroids, that central pursuit is often majesty itself. Japandroids’ new album is titled Near To The Wild Heart Of Life, so those themes remain in full effect from the opening drum fills of the title track. But the themes here are a bit more expansive: Released four and a half years after Celebration Rock, these eight songs are clearly the product of reflection, upheaval and the soul-searching that so often comes with travel and time off” – NPR. [Limited color vinyl pressing also available.]
 

Tift Merritt – Stitch Of The World CD/LP (Yep Roc)
Stitch Of The World, Tift Merritt’s sixth studio album, was written on a friend’s farm in Marfa, Texas, at Merritt’s California cabin, and in New York City in the wake of several major changes in her life. The album was recorded in Los Angeles while Merritt was six months pregnant, after which she relocated to her hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina. Merritt work-shopped the songs on Stitch Of The World with longtime friend Sam Beam of Iron & Wine after bumping into him in an airport. “With wry, talking-blues affection, she contrasts inexperience and scarred worldliness in ‘Dusty Old Man,’ whose shambling groove gains its shape from drummer Jay Bellerose’s pleasingly capricious outbursts. ‘Heartache Is An Uphill Climb’ starts off more gingerly. Once Merritt’s performance gathers steam, the song turns into a strong-willed, AM soul-pop tune that portrays heartache not as a season to be passively endured so much as one to be slowly, strenuously overcome. In “Wait For Me,” one of three tracks that feature Beam’s harmonies, Merritt sings in cursive, cascading lines of two battered souls determined to treat themselves and each other well in a fresh go-round. Disappointment and desire, regret and equanimity coexist in Merritt’s sensuous meditations. Within them, she gives her listeners room to breathe” – KCRW.

P.O.S. – Chill, Dummy CD (Doomtree)
The Minneapolis rapper and founding member of Doomtree, releases his first solo album since 2012’s We Don’t Even Live Here. Chill, Dummy marks the rapper’s return to form following a 2014 kidney transplant. Features Justin Vernon, Astronautalis, Kathleen Hanna, Lizzo, Allan Kingdom, Busdriver and Open Mike Eagle and many others. [Vinyl edition due March 17.]
 

Piano Magic – Closure CD/LP (Second Language)
“All good things must come to an end. The sort of cult band you’ve either taken for granted, or simply remained oblivious to throughout their lifespan, Piano Magic’s twelfth album will also be their final one, and what a way to bow out. The elegiac grace that coats this aptly-titled record has always clung limpet-like to Glen Johnson’s forever-in-flux collective, demonstrated most beautifully here by the soothing balm of strings on closer ‘I Left You Twice, Not Once,’ as though trying to ease the blow of the final notes we’ll ever hear from a band who deserved more than relative obscurity.” – The Skinny

 

Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk – Passage CD/LP (Azure Vista)
“Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk have collaborated before to great effect on their album Epic released in 2010. Ulrich Schnauss is no stranger to the shoegaze crowd given his initial releases such as A Strangely Isolated Place in 2003. He also works inside the genres of electronic and ambient music. His many projects include Tangerine Dream, Engineers, Longview and others. He’s also well known for the many remixes he has done for other artists. Jonas Munk is a master at repetitive modes and phrases, taking what ought to be monotonous and making it entirely interesting and beautiful. He slides from electronic modes of instrumentation to beautiful psychedelic guitar pieces. Together, their collaboration brings a symbiosis to create beautifully constructed compositions.” – Somewherecold

 

Ty Segall – Ty Segall CD/LP/Cassette (Drag City)
On the prolific songwriter’s eponymous new album Segall is backed by a full band Emmett Kelly, Mikal Cronin, Charles Moothart and Ben Boye “A clean flow; something real for a world that doesn’t know what it’s holding. Ty keeps us guessing while splashing our collective face with no shortage of astringent tunes of all colors.”
 

Sleater-Kinney – Live In Paris CD/LP+MP3/Cassette (Sub Pop)
Live In Paris is the first official record of Sleater-Kinney’s famously blistering stage performance. The thirteen-track album, which features Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker, Janet Weiss, and touring member Katie Harkin, was captured on March 20th, 2015 at the Paris’s historic La Cigale venue, during the band’s sold-out, international tour in support of their acclaimed eighth album, 2015’s No Cities To Love. Live In Paris includes songs from nearly every Sleater-Kinney album, including No Cities To Love, The Woods, One Beat, The Hot Rock, Dig Me Out, and Call The Doctor. [Limited translucent vinyl pressing also available.]

 

Tobin Sprout – The Universe & Me CD/LP+MP3/Cassette (Burger)
“Former Guided By Voices multi-instrumentalist Tobin Sprout has lived inside the vast universe of indie rock for most of his adult life, but his sixth solo album deals more with the universe of his own imagination — a sprawling, imperfect place filled with melodic treasures hidden amid waves of glorious distortion. The Universe And Me is the product of a lifetime of knowledge in more ways than one. Its lyrical content explores the gap between childhood and adulthood, alternating between a kind of sweet naivety and a heartbroken understanding of life’s many tragedies. Its production is similarly all over the place, focusing more on feel than on any kind of unified aesthetic. The result is raw, honest, and oftentimes revelatory.” – Consequence Of Sound

 

T.S.O.L. – The Trigger Complex CD/LP+MP3 (Rise)
The influential Southern California punk rock pioneers make their awaited return with a new record label and their 11th studio album. “Nearly four decades later, original members Ron Emory, Mike Roche and Jack Grisham have returned to creative heights with one of their most inspired albums in decades with The Trigger Complex. Comprising of thirteen songs, the band’s new record runs the gamut of charging punk anthems to brooding rock songs that will no doubt please listeners. Given the country’s turbulent, divisive political climate it could not be better timing for the return of one of punk’s most important and vocal bands” – Decibel Geek. [Limited clear color vinyl pressing also available.]

 

Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau – Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau 2xCD/2xLP (Nonesuch)
Nonesuch Records labelmates mandolinist/singer Chris Thile and pianist Brad Mehldau, longtime admirers of each other’s work, first toured as a duo in 2013. At the end of 2015, they played a two-night stand at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom before going into the studio to record Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau, a mix of covers and original songs
 

Frank Turner – Sleep Is For The Week [Reissue/2007] 2xCD+MP3/2xLP+MP3 (Xtra Mile Recordings)
Tenth anniversary of Turner’s debut album includes a bonus CD featuring six demos and a download code for a full live set from 2006. [Vinyl edition features an etching on the D-side.]
 

Various Artists [Matthew Dear] – DJ Kicks CD/2xLP+CD (!K7)
An exciting start for 2017 in the always high-class DJ Kicks series, this time with Texan subversive electronica mastermind Matthew Dear in charge. In addition to three of his own previously unreleased tracks, this mix contains songs by Simian Mobile Disco, ItaloJohnson, and Groovesh, and others, both well-known and underground.
 

Various Artists – Studio One Rocksteady Volume 2: The Soul Of Young Jamaica CD/2xLP (Soul Jazz)
Soul Jazz Records’ new journey into the mighty vaults of Clement Dodd’s Studio One steps once more into the fertile musical environment of Jamaican music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, from the sweet harmony vocals of seminal 1960s rocksteady right up to the nascent birth of reggae and roots music at the start of the 1970s. While ska at the start of the 1960s had taken American rhythm and blues as its main influence, rocksteady focused on the emergence of American soul music – with Jamaican vocal harmony groups such as The Gaylads, John Holt & The Paragons, Carlton & The Shoes showing a particular fascination with the close harmonies of Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions and other US soul acts. Here The Heptones even feature with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released.”
 

Animal Collective – Here Comes The Indian [Reissue/2003] LP (My Animal Home)
At the beginning there were two of them — Avey Tare and Panda Bear — banging drums and tweaking synths in their bedrooms, singing strange and sometimes heartbreaking songs about imaginary friends and childhood pets. Carried along by washes of squalling feedback, the music was noisy, and it was weird, but it was, at heart, pop music. This was the start of Animal Collective. For fifteen years Dave Porter (Tare), Noah Lennox (Bear), Brian “Geologist” Weitz and Josh “Deakin” Dibb have been rewriting the musical map, their line-up and aesthetic shifting with each astonishing release as they continue their pursuit of a new psychedelia. Here Comes The Indian was the first album to use the name Animal Collective and the first release on their Paw Tracks label. [Hollindagain vinyl reissue due March 3.]
 

Ariel Pink & Weyes Blood – Myths 002 12” (Mexican Summer)
Weyes Blood and Ariel Pink join forces on Myths 002 for the second installment of Mexican Summer’s collaboration series. Composed and captured in Marfa, Texas during the annual Marfa Myths music and arts festival, the four songs of Myths 002 capture musicians at play—two distinct voices in pop music inexplicably, effortlessly folding into harmony.
 

Cavern Of Anti-Matter – Blood Drums [Reissue/2013] 3xLP+MP3 (Duophonic)
Vinyl reissue of Cavern Of Anti-Matter’s (the krautrock-inspired band, featuring ex-Stereolab members Tim Gane and Joe Dilworth and synth player Holger Zapf) much sought-after debut album, originally issued as a vinyl-only edition of 500 copies on Berlin label Grautag Records.
 
The Holydrug Couple – Soundtrack For Pantanal LP (BYM)
The Holydrug Couple (THC) unleashes their fully-dreamy pop-rock under BYM Records after their acclaimed two records for the NYC based Sacred Bones Records. Conceived to be part of the recently released Moonlust, these original and never released set of songs continues to display the same elaborate and delightful compositions that group together to become the soundtrack of an imaginary film, “one of the best non-existing movies of all time.” Pressed on limited edition white vinyl.

 

Robert Earl Keen – Live Dinner Reunion 2xLP (Dualtone)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Live album from Robert Earl Keen with special guests celebrating the 20th year anniversary of his most successful album No. 2 Live Dinner. Joining Keen on stage for the historic event were Joe Ely, Cory Morrow, Cody Canada, Cody Braun of Reckless Kelly, Bruce Robison and former college roommate and touring compadre, Lyle Lovett.
 

Cate LeBon – Rock Pool 12” (Drag City)
Rock Pool spins and swirls the waters with carnival pop, synth, drone and dance, all beamed along the panelectric ray of Cate’s immutable blank stare. Short-and-sweet-play fun of a highly ambiguous nature.

 

Minor Victories – Orchestral Variations 2xLP (Fat Possum)
The fantastic debut from members of Slowdive, Mogwai and The Editors has been reinterpreted as an orchestral arrangement. Standard black vinyl pressing.
 

Pontiak – Sun On Sun [Reissue/2006] LP+MP3 (Thrill Jockey)
Pontiak’s Thrill Jockey debut Sun On Sun is back on vinyl after being sold out for over 8 years.  This 2017 re-issue is pressed on virgin vinyl, freshly cut at TruTone Mastering and includes a free download card. “Pontiak could tear the roof off any coliseum with their arena-sized riffs. Hailing from rural Virginia, the Carney brothers — Van, Jennings and Lain — have crafted a long string of albums filled with fuzzy, feedback-laden neo-psych stoner jams” — NPR Music/KEXP
 
Sleep – Sleep’s Holy Mountain [Reissue/1992] LP (Earache)
Limited edition “Full Dynamic Range” purple color vinyl pressing of this stoner rock classic.
 

Fred Thomas – Changer LP+MP3/Cassette (Polyvinyl)
Following the release of his critically-lauded 2015 album All Are Saved, songwriter/producer Fred Thomas entered a period of enormous transition. He quit his job, got married and moved to Canada, all between multiple tours that ran the spectrum from sold out opening slots to sleeping in the car after empty gigs. At the end of yet another tour he returned to Athens, Georgia, to again work with producer Drew Vandenberg (of Montreal, Mothers) on an album aiming to encapsulate the nonstop changes that had sprung out of this phase of his life. Naturally, this record is named Changer. Limited yellow color vinyl pressing.

 

NEXT WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
ELBOW – Little Fictions CD/LP
DAVE HAUSE – Bury Me In Philly CD/LP
LESS THAN JAKE – Sound The Alarm CD/LP
LIFT TO EXPERIENCE – Texas Jerusalem Crossroads CD/LP
MENZINGERS – After The Party CD/LP
MOON DUO- Occult Architecture CD/LP
SURFER BLOOD – Snowdonia CD/LP
WYCLEF JEAN – J’ouvert CD
ELUVIUM – Talk Amonst The Trees LP
“” “” – Copia LP
UNWOUND – Take Train LP reissue