There's $$ left over for rice (New records/CD's/etc)

[Benmont Tench]

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - The Brutalist Bricks



Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

High, high expectations for both.

[Benmont Tench]

Today:


Pavement - Quarantine the Past



Tift Merritt - Tambourine



Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd


Fun Fact: The first CD I ever burned (waaay back in 2001) was my own "Best of Pavement". It was much more concise (and, indeed, obvious) than what Matador included here, but I was a Pavement novice at the time.

[ellaguru]

Tift Merritt - Tambourine

She may not be pushing the boundaries of anything, but I kinda like Tift Merritt.

[edison]

Lots of stuff in the mail over the past few weeks, starting with two sides of English-sung indie rock:


Pull The Prawn Clown - The Berlin Tapes - the Guided by Voices/Elliott Smith school, and always one of my favorite local Bordeaux bands.


Clara Clara - Comfortable Problems - the Animal Collective/Deerhoof/the Ex school, manically catchy if somewhat exhausting at times.

Also:


Vic Chesnutt and Mr & Mrs Keneipp - Merriment - filling what was practically my only gap in my collection with this underrated gem of a record, featuring two or three absolute Chesnutt classics.


Deerhoof - Reveille - slowly expanding my knowledge of Deerhoof's back catalogue. Need to listen more, but it sounds incredible, of course.


Richard Skelton - Landings - thought I need to own a CD copy of one my most-listened to, favorite albums of the year so far. I was disappointed that there is absolutely nothing in the way of liner notes - apparently that was reserved to a limited edition only. But it's still a great record, in some ways 2010's answer to Hildur Guðnadóttir's Without Sinking.


Broken Bells - Broken Bells - people who like the Shins can go pick this one up, and people who inexplicably think the Shins represent everything that is wrong with indie rock will be better off ignoring this.

Last but certainly not least, very, very exciting (only arrived a few days ago, even though the label claimed it would ship to arrive in med-February):


A Weather - Everyday Balloons - this is pretty much as excellent as one could expect it to be, retaining the same fragile charm as the first record, but building on it in countless subtle ways, and with devastating lyrical insights all over the place.

[auto-da-fey]

Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

High, high expectations for both.

I keep thinking I should like this band--every time I hear about them, I get convinced they would resonate with me. But they never do--couldn't get into the first album, and I gave this two spins and just didn't get much out of it. I like the vocal style, but I find the lyrics lacking--the confessional purgings strike me as kind of trite, and the appropriations and allusions forced in a way that, say, the Gaslight Anthem's aren't. Given the seemingly near-unanimous critical consensus, it's probably just me, but still, definitely a disconnect here.

[alex]

Just filled some gaps in my collection: all Mickey Newbury, all used, all vinyl:




Couldn't find decent pictures. Those are Sings His Own, Lovers, The Sailor, and After All These Years.

[edison]

Nice! Please report on these in due time; I seem to have underestimated the number of albums Mickey Newbury released. Any thoughts on the A Weather, or are you leaving me all alone to promote it?

[ellaguru]

Those are good, especially Lovers, which is awesome. I think Sings His Own is the only vinyl one I'm still missing, although I don't have any of the CD-only releases, although I think most of those are live or compilations.

[alex]

Nice! Please report on these in due time; I seem to have underestimated the number of albums Mickey Newbury released. Any thoughts on the A Weather, or are you leaving me all alone to promote it?

Well, he does have a tendency to rework and revisit old material, so it's not all original, all the time. Fortunately, his material does not tend to be the sort of which you grow tired easily.

Only listened to The Sailor so far, which sounded great. As does the beginning of Lovers, which I just put on because of ellaguru's praise.

I downloaded the A Weather album from emusic just a few days ago, haven't even accomplished a full listen yet (though I guess you caught my half-listen earlier today on last.fm). Like what I heard so far, but I'll wait with the promotion until I feel more qualified to judge its merits.

[alex]

I don't have any of the CD-only releases, although I think most of those are live or compilations.

I'm not familiar with that period either, for the most part, but A Long Road Home (2002) was one of my emusic downloads last month, and it's got a lot of play on the mp3 player during hours spent on various trains. You should probably check it out! Or at the very least, listen to the super-cheesy, super-fantastic "So Sad".

[edison]

I downloaded the A Weather album from emusic just a few days ago, haven't even accomplished a full listen yet (though I guess you caught my half-listen earlier today on last.fm). Like what I heard so far, but I'll wait with the promotion until I feel more qualified to judge its merits.

I hadn't caught that, no. And now I see that you're going to see Randy Newman! Not fair that he's not playing anywhere around here!

Re: A Weather, I was pretty sure you and I had done some promotion for Cove with our formerly lurking friend, but she tells me she's never heard about it. Weird!

[ellaguru]

Re: "So Sad". Thanks for that! Yes, on first listen it does seem to alternate between cheesy and fantastic in about equal measure, in a way that will probably lean toward fantastic once I listen to it more.

Randy Newman, hey? That will be fun. He played over two hours here last year, and I'm pretty sure he was drunk enough to make his stories that much funnier.

[alex]

Re: A Weather, I was pretty sure you and I had done some promotion for Cove with our formerly lurking friend, but she tells me she's never heard about it. Weird!

Oh no, she must be suffering from amnesia. I hope it's nothing serious! (As I recall, when I first discovered the album, I sent an e-mail to both of you with a link. Even if I'm hallucinating about that, I *definitely* showed her the album cover and told her to check it out.)

I don't know yet if I'll actually make it to the Newman show (why does it have to be a Wednesday, of all days?!), though I'd sure like to. 

[alex]

Oh hey, it's a good thing I didn't go to the office today: Just received another package, containing some Stewart Lee DVDs, and -- more on topic in the context of this thread -- the new Spoon album on CD.

[edison]

I should investigate Stewart Lee - is there an obvious suitable introduction point?

[davy]

Just filled some gaps in my collection: all Mickey Newbury, all used, all vinyl:




Couldn't find decent pictures. Those are Sings His Own, Lovers, The Sailor, and After All These Years.

Is this the guy that released that massive 10-disc box set that had LPTJ buzzing a few years ago? (If not, who was that?)

Anyway, judging by the album covers posted above, I'd probably dig this stuff.

[alex]

I think you mean the right guy, yeah. Though I think everyone who considered getting the boxset ended up going the out-of-print vinyl releases for a few dollars on ebay route instead. The buzz was less for the boxset as an object and more for the music contained on it.

You should probably listen to him, davy. He's all kinds of wonderful.

edit: edison, dunno. I've only seen youtube clips so far, but quite a lot of them. You've seen the one on political correctness that Nick Ink posted a few months ago, right?

[davy]

The buzz was less for the boxset as an object and more for the music contained on it.

Yeah, that's the impression I got. The box set was more of a conversation starter as I recall.

[ellaguru]

Yeah, that's the guy, and yeah, you should give him a listen.

[Benmont Tench]

Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do


I fear my recent love affair with Southern Rock Opera has created unrealistic expectations for this, but we'll see.

[davy]

In the mail (so awesome!):





And at the thrift store (for $6 total! I am psyched about that Pylon reissue):



Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen  /  Pylon - Gyrate Plus  /  MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

[ellaguru]

Only listened to The Sailor so far, which sounded great. As does the beginning of Lovers, which I just put on because of ellaguru's praise.

The rest was great, too, right? It's one of my favourites of his.

[alex]

Yes, I can definitely see what you mean.

[ellaguru]

Just arrived in the mail. Just started side A.

[davy]

Don't you just love it when you buy a "used" CD at Amazon for a buck and-a-half and it arrives still in the plastic? Give it up for one of Life's pleasant little surprises.