This Week’s New Releases & Staff Picks – 8/2/2019
STAFF PICKS
Kimber – Russian Circles, Spoon
Lindsay – Tyler Childers, Cross Record
Dario – Föllakzoid
Paula – Cross Record, Tuxedo
THIS WEEK’S NEW RELEASES
Tyler Childers – Country Squire CD/LP+MP3 (RCA)
Rising singer/songwriter Tyler Childers returns with Country Squire, his second official full-length effort. Produced by Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson, the album was recorded at The Butcher Shoppe in Nashville and consists of nine new originals. In addition to Childers (vocals, acoustic guitar), the long player features several world-renowned musicians including Stuart Duncan (fiddle, mandolin, banjo), Miles Miller (drums, background vocals) and Russ Pahl (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, pedal steel, Jaw harp, baritone). Of the mission behind the album, Childers notes, “I hope that people in the area that I grew up in find something they can relate to. I hope that I’m doing my people justice and I hope that maybe someone from somewhere else can get a glimpse of the life of a Kentucky boy.” Ushered in by the yearning bluegrass-tinged tale, “House Fire”, Country Squire continues a series of breakout years for the promising artist, whose acclaimed debut, Purgatory – also produced by Simpson and Ferguson – landed on multiple Best of 2017 lists. [Indie store exclusive color splatter vinyl LP edition also available.]
Russian Circles – Blood Year CD/LP (Sargent House)
With their new album Blood Year, Russian Circles forsake the sonic crossroads of divergent musical paths found on albums like Guidance and Memorial to offer up the most direct and forceful collection of songs in their discography – an album that fully embraces the most forceful aspects of their repertoire, retaining the dexterity, multi-faceted techniques, and dramatic compositions that have been a trademark of Russian Circles since day one.
Ty Segall – First Taste CD/LP/Cassette (Drag City)
First Taste is an introspective set for Segall after the extroversions of 2018’s Freedom’s Goblin. Lines of struggle wind through the songs as Segall reflects on family, re-encountering pasts, anticipating futures. He skates through oneness, self-esteem, the parents – all the joys of a rain-filled childhood – while reaching outward in the here and now, feeling for a shared pulse.
Spoon – Everywhere At Once: The Best Of Spoon CD/LP+MP3 (Matador)
Spanning a career well into its third decade, Spoon has announced a greatest hits compilation to coincide with their enormous North American amphitheater tour alongside Beck and Cage The Elephant. In addition to the 12 classics assembled onto this collection, Spoon enters a new classic into the canon: “No Bullets Spent.”
Cross Record’s self-titled third album begins with Emily Cross’s disembodied voice intoning from an otherworldly vacuum. In the three years since her last album, Cross has divorced, quit drinking, become a death doula, started the observational podcast What I’m Looking At, and toured and recorded with Sub Pop’s Loma, the trio she formed with Dan Duszynski on drums and Jonathan Meiburg (Shearwater) on guitar/vocals. On Cross Record, she guides the listener like a sonic Virgil, delivering a textured soundscape of meditative curiosity, akin to Low’s Double Negative, Broadcast’s The Noise Made By People and Radiohead’s Kid A.
Föllakzoid – I CD/LP (Sacred Bones)
The long-awaited fourth full-length by Föllakzoid isn’t merely a recalibration for the band. It is a multidimensional reconsideration of what the process of songwriting, performance, and creating a work of recorded music can be. Unlike past Föllakzoid records, that were done in single takes with the full band, this record took three months to construct out of more than 60 separate stems – guitars, bass, drums, synthesizers, and vocals, all recorded in isolation. Producer Atom TM, who was not present for recording, was then asked to re-organize the four sequences of stems without any length, structural restrictions or guidelines. Those sequences ultimately became the four long tracks that appear on I. [Limited colored vinyl pressing also available.]
Neurosis & Jarboe – Neurosis & Jarboe [Reissue/2003] CD/LP (Neurot)
When two independent and distinct spheres overlap, the resulting ellipse tends to emphasize the most striking and powerful characteristics of each body. Such is the case with this particular collaboration between heavy music pioneers Neurosis and the multi-faceted performer Jarboe (who performed in Swans and who has collaborated with an array of people from Blixa Bargeld, J.G. Thirlwell, Attila Csihar, Bill Laswell, Merzbow, Justin K. Broadrick, Helen Money, Father Murphy, the list goes on…) The musicians pull from one another some of the most harrowing and unusual sounds ever heard from either artist at the time-a sentiment which also rings true to some fifteen years later.
CFM – Soundtrack To An Empty Room LP (In The Red)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Charles Moothart is releasing his third album under the moniker CFM. Moothart is a frequent contributor on many of Ty Segall’s solo ventures but also as a co-conspirator in bands like the blazing jam unit Fuzz, and a fantastic monster of a group called GØGGS, which throws Segall and Moothart in with Chris Shaw of Ex-Cult. Something that’s immediately apparent on Soundtrack To An Empty Room is that it’s a harder record than its predecessors.
Idles – Mercedes Marxist 7” (PTKF)
Two previously unreleased tracks from Idles’ critically acclaimed album, Joy As An Act Of Resistance.
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit – Live From Twist & Shout 11.16.07 LP (New West)
Now available on vinyl LP for the first time, Live From Twist & Shout 11.16.07 is a 2008 released live EP from singer/songwriter Jason Isbell and his backing band, The 400 Unit. The six track collection was recorded live during an in-store at Denver, Colorado’s Twist And Shout Records in 2007 and features thrilling versions of “Hurricane And Hand” and “Outfit” plus a moving cover of Van Morrison’s “Into The Mystic”.
Producers Exile, Marco Polo, M-Phazes, Fatin, Diamond D, Mike Loe, Samiyam, Adam Deitch, Eric Krasno & Pharoahe Monch himself help shape W.A.R. into what has been deemed Monch’s greatest work to date.
Jay Reatard/Sonic Youth – Hang Them All b/w No Garage [Reissue/2009] 7” (Matador)
Originally released in 2009 as a limited edition Record Store Day exclusive, this 7” is now back in print to help celebrate the upcoming (August 4th) 10-year Anniversary of Jay’s second studio album and Matador debut, Watch Me Fall.
Tuxedo – Tuxedo III LP (Funk On Sight)
Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl. Tuxedo, Los Angeles-based recording artist Mayer Hawthorne and Seattle-based producer Jake One, has been steadily making a name for themselves over the past five years, standing at the forefront of a new wave of gangster boogie – one that owes as much to G-funk as P-funk. This is the territory of pre- and post-hydraulic low riders: a mélange of Cali boom-bap, analog synth bass and elegant disco that resonates truth and authenticity in an era where so many are faking the funk.