Belle and Sebastian Write About Love (Matador)
After a more than four year absence, Belle and Sebastian is back with another album more in the mold of 2003’s Dear Catastrophe Waitress or 2006’s The Life Pursuit than their ’90s stuff. However, with more lead vocal turns by Sarah Martin and guest apperanced by Norah Jones and actress Carey Mulligan, there’s also the influence of Stuart Murdoch‘s God Help the Girl project, too, and this Lp isn’t nearly as raucous (by B&S standards) as some of the more upbeat material on their two previous Lps. It’s too early to determine where this will fit in the B&S canon, but I really like it so far.
The Thermals/The Cribs – “Separate” b/w “So Hot Now” EP (Kill Rock Stars)
The Thermals track on this Record Store day split 7” is from the same sessions as their great new Lp Personal File or it sounds like it at least. I’ve never been much of a fan of The Cribs, but their song on here is pretty good, too.
Dag Nasty – Dag with Shawn (Dischord)
Please see my full review here.
Moe Tucker explains her appearance at a Tea Party rally earlier this year
In an e-mail interview for the St. Louis-based Riverfront Times, she talks more about her attendance at a Tea Party rally earlier this year and about her beliefs in general. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at some of these statements.
You can read the entire interview here.
Ben Gibbard sings the national anthem before game 3 of the NLCS
You can watch it here.
Zooey Deschanel sings “God Bless America” during the 7th inning stretch of game 3 of the NLCS
Not to be outdone by her husband, Zooey Deschanel makes an appearance as well! You can watch it at the same link above.
Mark E. Smith disparages Mumford and Sons
This is why I love Mark E. Smith and The Fall. I don’t always agree with him and no one would describe him as a nice guy, but he’s never afraid to say what he thinks and in this case, he couldn’t be more correct. You can read about it here.
Sticks and Stones – Nineteen Eight Seven (Chunksaah!)
Please see my full review here.
Ari Up R.I.P.
In honor of her memory, here’s the amazing In the Beginning There was Rhythm. I wanted to post the Peel Sessions version, which is honestly way better, but I couldn’t find a link to it!
Raymond Scott Woolson – Broken Things Mended (Randy’s Alternative Music)
Closing out this week’s list is this all-instrumental disc from Raymond Scott Woolson. Before I got this disc, I knew almost nothing about him, but hearing this makes me wanna know more. Imagine if your favorite dream-pop or shoegaze outfit decided to ditch the vocals and make it even more atmospheric and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what this sounds like. His MySpace page lists Slowdive and The Cocteau Twins under the “sounds like” category and neither are far off, but I also hear similarities to My Bloody Valentine and M83 as well.
