NOW! That's what I call Good Stuff Coming Out!

[alex]

Well, where kitchenware is concerned, there is always this, of course. But no toasters.

I really liked what I heard by Deaf Center in the context of mixes made by you, but haven't actually sought them out myself. I should!

[Nick Ink]

That was great - I hadn't seen that before.

[edison]

Thee Stranded Horse is now Stranded Horse, and their second album "Humbling Tides" is out in a few weeks. I think there are some tracks from the album on Myspace or something, but since I have a not so great feeling about this from disliking an earlier preview track a while ago, I'd be happy for someone to volunteer a listen and reassure me.

[davy]

Well, if they didn't improve on their sound, at least they improved on their name.

[Nick Ink]

Thee Stranded Horse is now Stranded Horse, and their second album "Humbling Tides" is out in a few weeks. I think there are some tracks from the album on Myspace or something, but since I have a not so great feeling about this from disliking an earlier preview track a while ago, I'd be happy for someone to volunteer a listen and reassure me.

Interesting! I really liked that first album.

The Myspace page strangely labels iit 'Glam / Grindcore / Psychobilly', The samples I listened to were quite slow and not that exciting. I'm going to need some more of that old 8 minute virtuoso kora soloing to win me over, I think.

[narlus]

this book looks to be rather excellent:
http://www.copticcat.com/news/172/56/Seasons-They-Change-a-book-by-Jeanette-Leech-featuring-C93-and-many-others

[Nick Ink]

Another record I'm really looking forward to this year is the new Panda Bear album. I expect there will be a bit of a backlash on it, such is the way of these things, but a couple of the tracks I've heard sound pretty promising.

[davy]

Excitement! A facebook exchange this morning with the man himself has me excited that 2011 may be the Year of Minikon, my favorite electronic artist. In March, he's releasing a limited edition data disc package containing over 2 hours of music from 2002 to 2006, much of it unreleased material. The package will include a t-shirt and die-cut sticker (both of them firsts for this artist). Then, in late spring, a new Minikon LP will arrive, the first proper album since 2007's Hope. And after that, a new release from his side-project, Permanent Horse.

Wheee.

And here's where, for at least the 6th time on LPTJ, I'll plug my pal Denty One (aka Minikon), the best composer of video-gamey IDM the southeastern United States has ever known.

www.minikon.com

[Nick Ink]

I tried to listen to that davy, and I just don't understand it at all. Maybe it's the 'video games' part, but that's a strange, strange sound there.

[davy]

Aw, you're trying too hard! Give it another shot.

Go here: http://minikon.bandcamp.com/album/super-minikon-jp

and listen to "Whispering Hearts" or "Shiver and Smile" or "Little Cloud" or "Journey's End"--this is one of my favorite albums ever, and you can hardly go wrong. I find it all super-easy to love.

For something more recent, try http://minikon.bandcamp.com/album/hope and listen to "Family Mountain" or "She Makes Me Happy" (I love that little drum break at 00:57).

He's definitely got an 8-bit sort of aesthetic going on, but he doesn't operate inside of those boundaries. Just really melodic instrumental stuff, heavily influenced by Japanese pop art, Kraftwerk, and Yellow Magic Orchestra...maybe a little Orb/Orbital in there.

[davy]

C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, dooooooo it!

[Nick Ink]

I can't now, I'm stuck on the Deerhoof-Go-Round .

[alex]

New album "Brik" by De Kift in March! Exciting!

[Good Intentions]

What are they up to these days? I only have one Kift album, which I love, but it's the self-titled CD which I understand is a bit of a retrospective, so I'm not sure how representative it is of their current output.

[alex]

I don't actually know what's on the self-titled one, exactly - it's indeed a retrospective, and I have most of the original albums, so it made no sense to get it for me - but I'd say they're up to much of the same stuff that they've always been up to: fanfare-folk-punk, literary lyrics, awesome album packaging. I'd say the last couple of albums ('7', 'Hoofdkaas') have maybe been a little bit more quiet and smooth than those before that, but it's not been a huge shift or anything. In fact, I love both of these albums dearly. They've been pretty steadily putting out albums every other year or so and playing about a dozen or two shows a year (the one I went to about 2 years ago was pretty fantastic), and they also got some huge government funding for their endeavours a couple of years - although at the very latest with the new-ish government, I'd say that well has probably run dry. But they seem to be carrying on, obviously. Haven't heard any of the new material.

[edison]

Hey, nice, thanks for the info!

Maybe 2011 will finally be the year when they decide or get a chance to play in northeastern France - they seem to be fond of playing countryside villages or small towns, but never in this part of the country.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Don't know if this has been covered but I just got an email to my RVA account from a publicist that basically says the following:



4/19/11 BILL CALLAHAN APOCALYPSE LP/CD/DIGITAL
Drag City

So yeah, figured some of you would want to know if you didn't already.

[Nick Ink]

That is interesting, Andrew - I liked his Eagle thingbetter than anything I've heard from him. Eid Ma Clack Shaw, indeed!

[fishjim]

4/19/11 BILL CALLAHAN APOCALYPSE LP/CD/DIGITAL
Drag City

Sweet! Time to sweep up the bomb shelter.

That is interesting, Andrew - I liked his Eagle thingbetter than anything I've heard from him. Eid Ma Clack Shaw, indeed!

Yeah, Eagle was the first Callahan I loved, too. And I loved it hard.

[edison]

Looking forward to this too!

[davy]

Yet ANOTHER Feb. 15 release was just announced:




Gruff Rhys - Hotel Shampoo

http://www.nme.com/news/gruff-rhys/53768

Listening to this right now.

Big fat meh. Kinda what I expected. Certainly not what I hoped for, but...

It's better than his last solo album, anyway, but I didn't like that one much at all. Actively disliked it, in fact.

[davy]

Actually, let's not be too hasty. I could maybe see myself coming around to this album. Kinda reminds me of 90s-era SFA.

[Benmont Tench]

Those Pearl Jam reissues are actually looking pretty lame: http://www.pearljam.com/goods

[Andrew_TSKS]

I might grab that Vs LP. My copy is a cassette and it's my favorite of their albums, so it seems that it would be worth it. Nothing else there catches my attention--I have Vitalogy on vinyl already (as a single rather than a double LP, but it sounds perfectly fine that way), and the bonus tracks don't exactly have me salivating. I feel like I already have Crazy Mary on something (it's from the Victoria Williams tribute LP, isn't it?), and I've never been someone to bug out over demos/alternate takes. So I'll download "Hold On" and "Cready Stomp" and be done with it.

[davy]

Actually, let's not be too hasty. I could maybe see myself coming around to this album. Kinda reminds me of 90s-era SFA.

2nd listen and I'm enjoying it much more this time. You never really know what to expect with Gruff--or with SFA, for that matter. Always on my guard on first listens. Anyway, this time through, I'm thinking it feels a lot like Love Kraft--on some days, my favorite SFA album--and it's sounding better and better, despite not sounding anything at all like Gruff's first solo album, which I was totally in love with for a while.