The Bomb – Challenger (No Idea)
The follow-up to the monumental Speed is Everything _ (my album of the year for 2009) is finally (almost) here and it’s an 11” (yes you read that right) EP. The first side is comprised of four new tracks (including the title track) all of which cover more or less the same ground as _Speed is Everything and their previous work. I’ve heard some describe these songs as “heavier” than their previous stuff, but I’m not really hearing. Side B consists of BBC versions of older material like Speed is Everything‘s “The Kids” and “A Song for the Helenas” along with the title track of 2005’s Indecision and “Can Jeannie Come Out Tonight” from their debut, 1999’s Torch Songs. All in all, this is another fantastic record from Jeff Pezzati, Jeff Dean and company, albeit not one as essential as Speed is Everything.
The Raveonettes – Raven in the Grave (Vice)
I resisted hearing this one for a while because all of their Lps since 2003’s amazing Chain Gang of Love (a stylistic precursor to so much noisy indie-pop that’s come out during these last few years) have been letdowns. Not so with this one, though! They wipe the slate clean and go for an ’80s post-punk sound that owes less to The Jesus and Mary Chain and more to Sonic Youth‘s quieter side crossed maybe with a poppier Cocteau Twins. It’s hard to pin down, but it’s nice to see them head into an exciting new direction instead of treading water.
Zounds – Singles and EPs 1980-84 (Broken Rekids)
Along with reissuing Steve Lake and company’s sole early ’80s Lp The Curse of Zounds and issuing their new one, the fittingly titled The Redemption of Zounds, Broken Rekids have gone above and beyond by issuing a vinyl box set of all of their ’80s singles with original artwork and lyrics intact. Simply put, this is a goldmine of riches even if you already have this material on the previous ’90s reissues as it helps to put these songs in their proper context instead of having them be all jumbled up with tracks from The Curse of Zounds. Nevertheless, the first two singles, the unbelievable “War” and “Subvert” backed by “Can’t Cheat Karma” along with “Demystification” (covered by Lush in the mid ’90s) are still the most stunning, but don’t discount the others as well for they include pivotal tracks in the Zounds canon like “More Trouble,” “Knife” and “Not Me” along with the more experimental “Dancing”. This is a must!
The Faith – Subject to Change Plus First Demo (Dischord)
Please see my full review here.
Matthew Sweet – World Cafe Live at the Queen (Wilmington, DE) – October 28, 2011
Playing the entirety of his career-making 1991 classic Lp Girlfriend from start to finish, Sweet and his bandmates (including two members of sound-a-likes and collaborators Velvet Crush) struggled through the first several songs. Sweet struggled with the high notes and the band seemed out of snyc. About a third to halfway through the album, though, they started to lock in and Sweet (who it should be noted was nursing a cold that day) started singing better as well. After the Girlfriend portion of the show, we also got tracks from Altered Beast, 100% Fun (including “Sick of Myself”) and one from his new album Modern Art.
D.Y.S. – “Wild Card”
While this track won’t be officially released until November 12th, it’s up for preview at Revolver. Sounding nothing like any previous D.Y.S. recording, this track finds singer Dave Smalley going for (and nailing) a Boston or maybe UK street punk/oi! vibe backed by a song that sounds like new member Franz Stahl of Scream had his hands in. While this is not the D.Y.S. of old and while newer stuff in this mold often leaves me cold due to overproduction and other factors, this is red-hot stuff and with inspiring lyrics to boot! You can hear it here.
Don’t Ask Me Questions (Not Rated)
As a contributor to this Graham Parker documentary’s Kickstarter fund, I got to see a rough cut of the film recently. All I’ll say is that it’s essential viewing for Graham Parker fans and will most likely an emotional experience for many as well as it was for me. With the surprising and exciting news of Parker’s recent reunion record with The Rumour and the full band’s appearance in an upcoming Judd Apatow film starring Paul Rudd, I just wonder what they’ll cut out (if anything) to make way for the additional footage.
Robyn Hitchcock – Chronology: The Very Best of Robyn Hitchcock (Yep Roc)
A quick cheater’s guide to one of the finest songwriters of the last 35 years, this single-disc, 16-track collection starts off with two classics from The Soft Boys‘ Underwater Moonlight and finishes with the title track to his 2009 album Goodnight Oslo. In between are some of his most well-known songs from his A&M major label days (“Balloon Man,” “Madonna of the Wasps” and “So You Think You’re in Love”) along with more esoteric solo material like “I Often Dream of Trains” and “My Wife and My Dead Wife”. While this only scratches the surface of Hitchcock’s amazing career, it’s a great intro for newbies and a good collection to play for fans who are in the mood to hear him, but can’t decide which album to listen to.
Ruth Ruth – Live in Toronto (In Music We Trust)
File this one under the category of records I didn’t even know existed until very recently. This is the despite the fact that it came out in 2009. Ruth Ruth were a phenomenal and criminally neglected New York-based ’90s power-pop band who jumped from label to label and never got their due. This set captures them on CBC radio in early 1996 while on tour with Everclear and features material from their first album Laughing Gallery along with a version of “Brainiac”, which was subsequently recorded for a single on Deep Elm and later re-recorded for their sole RCA album Are You My Friend? a few years after that. The versions of these songs are authentically “live” sounding and a bit rougher around the edges than the album versions. As with most live albums, this one’s mainly for fans and I’d tell the curious to start with either the aforementioned Laughing Gallery or 1996’s EP The Little Death, but given that they left behind so little music, finding out about this was like receiving an unexpected gift.
Kristin Hersh – Rat Girl (Penguin, 2010)
All of the praise that this book has gotten is justified. Structured without chapters and more akin to reading a well-edited journal or diary than a straightforward memoir, this reads a bit like one of Hersh’s songs.
