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Pink Floyd - The Story of Wish You Were Here DVD (Eagle Vision)

15 July 2012

Wish You Were Here represents many things in the Pink Floyd canon. Ultimately, it emerges as the band’s most focused artistic statement, even while examining the separate themes of Roger Waters’ struggle against the machinery of the music industry and the still-open wound of the absence of band founder Syd Barrett.

Frida Hyvönen - To the Soul

Frida Hyvönen – To The Soul (RMV Grammofon - Sweden)

15 July 2012

The style of her lyrics is the result of a practical consideration: Hyvönen’s train of thought is too highly associative to be forced into a rhyme scheme.

77s sticks and stones

The Seventy Sevens - Sticks and Stones re-issue (Lo-Fidelity)

15 July 2012

The Seventy Sevens’ early records garnered comparisons ranging from Echo and the Bunnymen to The Rolling Stones. That may have hampered their marketable identity, but it made them a beloved one-band jukebox to fans. Sticks and Stones captures the band’s schizophrenia at its best.

Nubians - Nubians (Independent)

14 July 2012

A comfortable punch in the face that reeks of basement tours and beer, Nubians , though sloppy and no-fi, can’t hide the fact that there are some capable-ass musicians behind the murk, ready to party and make plenty more gratifying and edge-kicking punk tapes.

TangoCharlie - Worthwhile Dilemmas (Independent)

14 July 2012

Just a tick on the “fi” side of lo-fi bedroom beats, the songs weave a dark and seedy path through the various stages of urban concern and pathos.

Redd Kross- Researching The Blues (Merge)

12 July 2012

Redd Kross comes storming back with the hook laden Researching The Blues”

Soul Asylum – Delayed Reaction (429)

12 July 2012

An album that turns down the volume a bit still has some rambunctious moments.

Grave Desecrator Deathspells Rising Metalhit.com

Grave Desecrator - Deathspells Rising (Metalhit.com)

11 July 2012

With this collection of rare early releases and previously unreleased live and rehearsal recordings from Brazil’s black/death/thrash barbarians, Metalhit.com finalizes its most recent trilogy of South American extreme metal.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Americana (Reprise)

5 July 2012

You’ve probably heard by now that for his umpteenth album, Neil Young chose to sing (mostly) American (mostly) folk songs. It seemed like a good idea, and I wanted to like this album. I’m a huge Neil Young fan — I’ve even been known to defend the merits of Landing on Water. So yes, I wanted to like it, but I just can’t.

Mangoo Neverland

Mangoo – Neverland (Small Stone)

5 July 2012

It’s easy enough to categorize Mangoo‘s second album Neverland as stoner rock, but to dismiss the Finnish quintet as yet another meat-and-potatoes heavy rock troop is markedly unfair.

Neneh Cherry and The Thing - The Cherry Thing (Smalltown Supersound)

4 July 2012

It’s fitting that Swedish free jazzers The Thing, a band named after a composition by Don Cherry, have now collaborated with his stepdaugher Neneh Cherry.

Mission Of Burma – Unsound (Fire)

4 July 2012

Burma returns with their finest effort in 30 years.

Poisonous Perdition's Den Metalhit.com

Poisonous - Perdition's Den (Metalhit.com)

3 July 2012

This is furious rage in its purest form, unapologetic, unsympathetic, uncompromising, uninhibited animalistic fury that attacks only to kill.

Bestial Holocaust Into the Goat Vulva Metalhit.com

Bestial Holocaust - Into the Goat Vulva (Metalhit.com)

26 June 2012

The music of Bestial Holocaust falls somewhere between Sarcófago’s first two albums, INRI and The Laws of Scourge.

The June Brides "A January Moon" c/w "Cloud" (Slumberland/Occultation)

25 June 2012

Hurray! Hurrah! Yippee! Yay! Huzzah! Phil Wilson took us to heart, reformed The June Brides, and here it is, their first new single in 26 years!!! It’s GREAT!!!!!

Blues Control - Valley Tangents (Drag City)

25 June 2012

Pennsylvania-based experimental duo Blues Control release their first record on new label Drag City, eschewing the heavier, proggier moments of their previous releases for a light, restrained, and extremely mellow record.

Deathronation Exorchrism Metalhit.com

Deathronation - Exorchrism (Metalhit.com)

20 June 2012

Where many death metal bands look to the Swedish scene of technical proficiency and high-end equipment for inspiration, Deathronation take a more old school, analog approach.

Ami Saraiya & The Outcome – Soundproof Box (Self-Released)

20 June 2012

In less deft hands, all the style-hopping would just seem that the artist was trying to show off but in the hands of Saraiya, it all makes a weird kind of sense.

Fear Factory – The Industrialist (Candlelight)

13 June 2012

Cold, calculating, angry, and everything you want from a Fear Factory record.

CocoRosie "We Are On Fire" c/w "Tearz for Animals" (Touch & Go)

13 June 2012

Sister duo CocoRosie release a brand new vinyl single with two strong songs; the big news, however, is that it is a new release on dormant label Touch & Go.

Forefather Last of the Line Metalhit.com

Forefather - Last of the Line (Metalhit.com)

12 June 2012

For those who prefer a bit of melody with their metal, there’s Britain’s Forefather.

Boys & Girls by Alabama Shakes

Alabama Shakes Boys & Girls Review

9 June 2012

Very late review of Alabama Shakes’ debut album Boys & Girls

The dB's - Falling Off the Sky (Bar/None)

9 June 2012

Stamey’s interestingly-titled “Collide-oOo-Scope” and Holsapple’s moving “She Won’t Drive in the Rain Anymore” end the album on a huge high note before going into the finale title track.

The dB's Falling Off the Sky

The dB’s – Falling Off the Sky (Bar/None)

7 June 2012
So is Falling Off the Sky worth the wait? Abso-friggin’-lutely.
chronology

Talking Heads - Chronology DVD - (Eagle Vision)

6 June 2012

Chronology provides a compelling and worthwhile overview of Talking Heads’ career. Rather than trying to manufacture a narrative, the band’s history is told primarily through a series of musical nuggets – allowing the band to speak for itself.

Ólafur Arnalds - Another Happy Day OST (Erased Tapes)

6 June 2012

Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds’s soundtrack to Sam Levinson’s film is a subtle, sublime collection of melancholy instrumentals.

Hordes of the Morning Star Consummatum Est Metalhit.com

Hordes of the Morning Star - Consummatum Est (Metalhit.com)

6 June 2012

With full-production and epic sound-quality, Consummatum Est is a solid statement of razor-sharp black metal with a death metal edge.

The Ripe Into Your Ears

The Ripe – Into Your Ears (Get Hip)

5 June 2012
While the Ripe certainly lays 60s garage pop down as the foundation of its sound, Into Your Ear is no journey through Retroville.

The Men – Singles Going Home Alone #3 (Matador)

4 June 2012

The Men deliver the best Matador subscription single so far. No surprise because they’re great.

P/DO P/DRO - Massage EP (Pas Vendable)

3 June 2012

There’s a way to pull off a sweatily awkward sense of the icky and inappropriate, and P/DO P/DRO are easily masters at elucidating the profane, from their live satanic invocations to their trashy and irreverent circuit-bending sound.

Pas - Sunflower Serenade b/w Thorsten Soltau/The Elecctent People - Swiffing Hall. (m.m)

3 June 2012

This nicely packaged gem of a 7” is a real mind voyage laden with some tasty concrete/actuelle treatments just this side of “too cool” for serious electroacoustic chin-strokers.

The Megaphonic Thrift

The Megaphonic Thrift – s/t (Sonic Unyon)

3 June 2012

The Thrift knows how to write substantial tunes, and then attack them with the fervor of teenagers plugging into the amps for the first time.

Catl - Soon This Will All Be Gone (Independent)

2 June 2012

Though closer to the Mississippi River of Eastern Ontario than that of the Southern Delta region, catl have that muddy water in their bodies and souls, and that’s what makes their newest album shine.

Shorty Boy-Boy "Candy Man" b/w "Smoking Tea" (BITBY.tv)

2 June 2012

Philly’s sunny sweetheart Shorty Boy-Boy drops some grit into his pop machine with an auspicious single, a debut from the maverick party animal culture explosion that is BITBY.

Isaac Joel - Back to Bassics (Self-Released)

1 June 2012

Pomegranates bass-player prefaces the band’s forthcoming album with a six-song cassette of solo bass explorations.

Red Jacket Mine 7"

Red Jacket Mine – “Bellar & Bawl” b/w “Grow Your Own” (Fin)

1 June 2012

Reminiscent, but not imitative, of Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello and their peers.

Joel Gion - S/T (Burger Records)

30 May 2012

Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me!

Queen days of our lives

Queen - "Days of Our Lives" (Eagle Vision)

29 May 2012

In a field perhaps over-filled with unauthorized biographies, Days of Our Lives is a refreshing and illuminating look into the arc of Queen’s stadium-sized career. Benefiting from full band involvement, the documentary makes for great drama. Above all, it’s filled with ambitious and extravagant rock and roll.

Neorev Brooklyn Stomp

Neorev - "Brooklyn Stomp" EP (Neorev)

29 May 2012

With this collection of tracks, Neorev proves to be a solid force in underground electronic music.

Mattias Hellberg High in the Lowlands

Mattias Hellberg – High in the Lowlands (Hidden Agenda)

29 May 2012

Recorded with producer/multi-instrumentalist Mattias Areskog, Hellberg keeps things simple, crooning over arrangements that are often little more than guitar and strings.

Lower Dens - Nootropics

Lower Dens - Nootropics (Ribbon Music)

28 May 2012

A new kind of drug album, one lacking the euphoric highs of Screamadelica, the terrifying/hilarious visions of Locust Abortion Technician, or anything like an identifiable “experience.”

Julia Holter - Ekstasis

Julia Holter - Ekstasis (RVNG Intl.)

28 May 2012

Holter’s ideas are primarily latent, embedded in the slipperiness of her language, discoverable only from the pleasure the listener finds in their execution.

FOOD Three Pieces From Candyland

FOOD – Three Pieces From Candyland (Phratry)

27 May 2012

FOOD brings together veterans of 80s/90s indie rock.

Kam Kama - The Tiled House EP (Sister Cylinder)

26 May 2012

Still, that’s half of the four song demo and it as well as the four newer songs sound MUCH better than said demo.

Toro Y Moi - June 2009 (Carpark)

25 May 2012

Toro y Moi’s third album is actually a collection of baby photos of the nascent electronica pop group, and though it’s a bit different in sound to their previous two albums, it’s still an enjoyable listen.

The Cribs In the Belly of the Brazen Bull

The Cribs – In the Belly of the Brazen Bull (Wichita)

25 May 2012

Working with producers Dave Fridmann and Steve Albini, the Jarman brothers crank the guitars and hooks, while still folding in enough texture to give the tracks depth.

Dope Body - Natural History (Drag City)

23 May 2012

Baltimore-based Dope Body’s Drag City debut is a fun, furious throwback to the sounds of the Northwest circa 1990.

Willie Nelson Heroes

Willie Nelson – Heroes (Legacy)

23 May 2012

Heroes has its missteps, but overall is one of Nelson’s strongest albums in recent years.

Denier Thieves Eleventh Key

Denier - Thieves EP (Eleventh Key)

22 May 2012

Suicide never sounded so lovely.