AJ Morocco: March 20, 2011

New releases, March 2011

1. The Joy Formidable – Whirring

   
   
   Joy Formidable played several shows at SXSW last week, released a new record and premiered this video for Whirring, directed by Christopher Mills.

2. Rival Schools – Wring It Out

   
   
   The long awaited new LP from Rival Schools was released on Mar 8th on Photo Finish. Rival Schools features ex-members of Gorilla Biscuits, Quicksand, Glassjaw and CIV, among a laundry list of others.

3. Entrance – I Want You

   
   
   Entrance has a new 2 song 7” coming out with two covers. Side A is this Troggs cover, side B is A House is not a Motel, originally recorded by Love on their 1967 psych rock classic, Forever Changes. Pre-orders are available at Black Tent Press

4. Deerhoof – The Merry Barracks

   
   
   Taken from their new LP, Deerhoof vs. Evil, which hasn’t left my turntable in days.

5. Safewords – Live on Radio K

   Safewords is a relatively new band from Minneapolis featuring ex-members of The Formaldehyde Junkies and Damage Deposit. If you’re a fan of early Gun Club, Comsat Angels or Nick Cave, you’ll want to check out this five song set they taped at U of MN’s Radio K last week, which can be heard here

6. The Obits – Pine On

   
   
   Obits are the latest project of Rick Froberg from Hot Snakes and Drive Like Jehu. They are releasing their second LP on Sub Pop on March 29th, which is called Moody, Standard And Poor. Got an advanced copy of this and I have to say it’s pretty impressive.

7. Lecherous Gaze – Everywhere Else

   
   
   Lecherous Gaze has a 12” EP coming out the last week in March that has ex-members of Annihilation Time. They play dirty 70’s rock inspired by Black Flag and Thin Lizzy with some NWOBHM thrown in. Cover art features three cartoon women in bikinis holding an small infant.

8. The Black Angels – Sniper At The Gates of Heaven

   
   
   The Black Angels also played at SXSW this past week. If you want to catch up with what they’ve been doing live, Archive.org has a few recent TBA shows posted, which you can stream or download. One recent set that I’ve been obsessing over is from November 2010, taped in “Orlando, Florida at The Social”:
   http://www.archive.org/details/TheBlackAngels_838

9. Lower Dens – Twin-Hand Movement

   
   
   New LP from this Baltimore based band who write great moody lo-fi post punk songs. Super thick production with tons of reverb, truly a great recording.

10. Husker Du – The Story Of The Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock

    Voyager Press put out this impressive looking Hüsker Dü book last November. It’s a 288 page exhaustive study of the band, written by author Andrew Earles with the help of band members Greg Norton and Grant Hart.