While we're still in powerpop land (there's that word again!) allow me to bend your ear on this fine release from Douchemaster Records. I LOVE this album. I was singing along on like the second go-thru. The cover is certainly an homage to Mr. Costello, and the music captures the excitement of those first few Attractions records. We have the CD in stock, the vinyl may be gone for good.
Radio Heartbeat has been putting out beautiful vinyl reissues of impossible to find 70s awesomeness (I don't like to pigeonhole it as "powerpop" because that is a dirty word to some ROCK fans) and this Milk N' Cookies reissue is a really lovely thing to behold. The first LP is the scrapped Island full length from 1974 (later out on Sire in 1976) and the second LP is a 45 RPMer of singles. These guys had a timeless look that I'd place as suburban Ramones and the sound is not-as-cheezy Bay City Rollers fuck yeah. If you dig current bands like the Busy Signals and Cheap Time and also have a sweet tooth, I would pick this up ASAP. I can't imagine it being around for long. Serious dance around your room good time stuff here.
Anyone who knows me is already sick of me yammering about Smith Westerns. I'm sorry. Look, we finally have their first 7" on HoZac so I'm gonna wear it out almost as much as that Men Without Hats "Pop Goes The World" 7" in 1987. It's like shooting up chocolate milk. You might jump on your bed. Your dog probably won't like it. You most likely won't regret it in the morning. Look, a music video:
This is probably my most High School album. There's a great story with it too. I made Evan Dando sit through it once, so now you will. 
"There's really nothing nothing to it, and that is all that I know." How does this guy write the catchiest pop songs in this galaxy? This is pure jump around your rumpus room arms flailing having a blast. Seriously, Melissa and I just kept flipping it over. and over. and over. I was planning on skipping Pitchfork until they announced Jay (and the two of a fucking amazing one two punch with King Kahn and his Shrines) on Saturday. You can take your Lollapalooza and chug it with your Miller Lite. I will be on a slightly ramshackle foldy lawn chair with my lukewarm Goose Island being creeped out and crapped in. 7 inch of the year!! Oh wait, he has more. Jerk.
Being slightly disenchanted with the current state of indie rock (I feel like everything new coming out sounds like the same three bands!) I am just going crazy with reissues! Yes, I am spending my hard earned money to buy music I have already purchased in the past! First up is the freaking gorgeous trilogy of Mission of Burma LPs and CDs from super awesome Matador. I opted for the LPs, and man, they know what they are doing! Signals, Calls and Marches, Vs., and (then) posthumous live album The Horrible Truth About Burma all look and sound like a dream! The LPs all include LIVE DVDs (which I haven't watched yet, but I think they are all three different full length shows), full size booklets loaded with photos and interviews AND codes for digital downloading. You might want to hold on to your original LPs though, these guys are HEAVY. The CDs include the DVD and CD sized booklets. 
Next is Gary Numan + Tubeway Army's already excellent Replicas Redux CD. You get the original album with a handful of B-side type stuff and a second disc loaded with "early versions". Also the prerequisite very interesting booklet with the same sorta stuff I mentioned on the MoB's. While a money grubbing major label (just kidding, I love you majors too) would charge like $25 for something that awesome, each CD will only set you back $14.99! (Those LPs are under $25 though, not bad!) Also out now are 4 Men With Beards Scott Walker LP reissues. While I have not personally bought them because my dear friend Paul picked up Scott-3 while on holiday in the UK for me and I got some weird Phillips reissue of 4, I have heard my coworkers playing them and they sound great. Heavy jackets and very faithful to the original sleeves (maybe better, the originals are really flimsy!) these are a must own for any sentient being with a turntable. I'm still thinking about the Whiskeytown Strangers Almanac deluxe CD, but with the vinyl coming out soon (probably without bonus stuff) I'll probably hold off. Next week the Lemonheads It's a Shame About Ray is out, expect me to gush beyond belief over that one.
I decided that I miss rock. Malkmus is keeping the rock dream alive. At first I didn't think I was going to dig it. There were no fun sing-a-longy lyrics and keyboards like on Face the Truth which is now the album formerly known as the only Malkmus solo album I like. This is the one now! Sprawling, loud rock! Heavy!
I am a long-time Gary Louris lover. I probably liked the Jayhawks and Golden Smog before I ever got into that Wilco band. This first solo album from Louris is not going to shock any Jayhawks' fans. If you like easy 70s midtempo rock you will totally dig this, and as a fan of said genre I do not mean that as an insult. Chris Robinson (yeah, that guy) produced it and I think he did a really good job! The vinyl (released a few weeks before) sounds beautiful and has a gratuitous sepia-toned jamming in the studio gatefold that also hearkens back to the 70s. There are also more marijuana references on this one album than on any previous Jayhawks release (which I don't think there were any). There are lovely harmonies used sparingly and to great effect. I read that Robinson also produced the forthcoming Gary Louris/Mark Olson album also due this year, so yay!
You know an album is good when you can invision a montage to a few of the songs. Anyone can write an anthem, but a good montage song is hard to come by. This is music for a summer camp underdog story, the geeks vs. the jocks, the stoners vs. the matheletes... Did I mention the disco strings? It's perfectly paced too, with a good cool-down period right in the middle, just when you think you might explode from all the joggin' in place. Oh! They are playing Schubas on Saturday July 28. I highly recommend the live show, but come in and buy the CD first!
I love mellow, kind of "stoney" Christmas music. Willie Nelson's LP, My Morning Jacket's EP, Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Soundtrack... All of these are what I would like to hear if I was stuck inside a snow globe for a few hours. Now I can add Aimee Mann's 2006 offering to my list. This is a lovely, mellow group of holiday favorites along with a great original and the slightly puzzling remake of that song she sang with Michael Penn, sans Michael Penn. The new version will likely grow on me, though. The standout is her deadpan delivery of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" (on which she is aided by Grant Lee Phillips). This is the perfect antidote for the commercial ick found on the WLIT.
Detholz! are one of the best local bands happening right now. If You like Devo (back when they rocked a little bit more), charismatic front men, dancing and evangelicism then this is meant for you. It's a slightly creepy paranoid soul splunging dance party. Do yourself a favor and go see them live too. Freak Out! Jump in, jump out, freak out freak out FREAK OUT!
Fans of sunshine pop (certainly I am not the only one!) will find much to sink their teeth into with this bastard offspring of the Nuggets boxes. As the title promises, you will indeed be inundated with rainbows, and no less then TWO Paul Williams-penned songs (his own psych-pop band The Holy Mackerel as well as the Monkees performing "Someday Man"). Put this in your picnic basket with the box of wine and baguette and forget about the snow 'til next year!
Everyone knows the name Alex Chilton, but I think the unsung hero of Big Star is Chris Bell. This CD (out on vinyl next month from 4 Men With Beards) is a collection of demos which gives any of the Big Star output a run for its money. It's completely disconnected from any time or place...an introspective journey thru the mind of someone you would be too scared to get close to.
I survived my first completely homogenic listening of Scott Walker's The Drift. The packaging, which may be different than the for sale one (this one is catalogue # drift1) is a fucking black hole in your hands. Any light immediately around it is instantly absorbed. Even the insides of the jacket and sleeves are black. I'm playing it now pretty loud, and just hope the neighbors don't think someone is being murdered, or has already been murdered and those sounds are the aftermath. Did I mention it's analog(ue)? An mp3, m4a, ogg(?) is never going to sound like this, and I can only imagine how it sounds out of speakers one notch above my Radio Shack specials. Remember those Disney LP/storybooks, where you follow along with the action of the record? This is the antithesis. I followed along with the lyrics in this 12 inch book of blackness and had the shit scared out of me. The LP format is perfect because it gives you breathing time when you get up to flip and change records. You need it. It is not a passive listening experience. I read this interview prior to the listening, and while some of the songs are "explained" they become no less provocative or oblique. I cannot believe this album exists. That this came from one guy's head who appears to be fully functional in society. Strings sound like people screaming. They had to build a percussion instrument for one song because he heard it a certain way and nothing existed to make that sound. One of the things that makes this record even more remarkable is putting it in retrospect to all the ones he made before it, the progression his career has made. While perhaps sonically distant, the world of Montague Terrace isn't that far removed from that of the Flugleman. I guess Scott (1)-4 really doesn't have anything as disturbing as donkey punching or pee pee soaked trousers though. Oh wait; there's the wet head of his first case of ghonorrhea, but he didn't WRITE that one. There are pictures of him throughout the book, not surpisingly they are blurry and he's wearing sunglasses. The full body shot at the end is the best. John said "He looks like an alien in Converse."
