New Releases


Sigur Ros – Inni
Inni attaches real people to this totemic image: At the heart of it all, it’s four guys playing music and singing, with all their naked humanity on full aural display. And that, for me, is the one downside to this live album. Ironically, it’s also the best thing about it. Inni brings Sigur Rós and their music down from Olympus; it reminds us that they are mere mortals after all. Towards the end of the album, the band does provide a few “seeing God” moments of apotheosis, complete with the crescendo and climax that form the essential component of their best songs, restoring them to demigod status. “Festival”, the centerpiece of their most recent album, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, rears its fire-breathing head even more fully with Dýrason’s frenetic drumming in full force. Read the full review on Consequence of Sound


Childish Gambino – Camp
If you have only enjoyed “Heartbeat,” the LP’s first single, get the whole album. Because although it’s one of the album’s strongest tracks, there are better displays of Gambino’s talent on “Camp.”

The single’s catharsis is matched and exceeded in the album opener “Outside,” which uses stadium-sized posturing in production to showcase self-consciousness, regretful notions about death, heavy nostalgia. If this sounds like familiar – like Kanye, for instance – then you’re only partly right, because although he nods toward his contemporaries, Gambino does his own thing. Read the Full review on Death and Taxes Magazine


Tegan and Sara – Get Along
Sara Quin, one-half of the Canadian duo, said she hopes the intimate look into their lives will show the world there is a low-key side to their quirky personas.

“We’re just normal people and I didn’t want it to be too over-the-top funny, or too over-the-top rockstar-y. I just wanted it to be normal, middle-of-the-road,” Quin deadpanned in an interview with Wired.com. “We should’ve put that on the package: ‘Middle of the road. Not very funny. Not very intense.’” Read the full (sorta) review on Wired

YearEnders: Josh Friedman of Black Beauty

Josh Friedman is a pure pop regular, creator of brittle, blackened sludge noise, family man and educator. His taste in music is some of the most truly underground you’ll find. Her are his “Tops of 10” – Apparently in no particular order

Sun City Girls-Funeral Mariachi
These guys are such an institution, I won’t even attempt to write anything about them. This album is wonderful

Endless Boogie-Full Head House
Top Dollar and the gang are back again and if you know these men from before it’s more of the same. Big chooglin’ riffs, growling vocals, and jam after jam after jam. It’s like the last 40 years never even happened.

Satan’s Satyr-demo cs
Duo from Virginia that brings blackened thrash metal with some psych/Stooges worship. Big downer vibes on this one, but you can’t help but nod your head.

Personal and the Pizzas-Raw Pie
Jersey’s finest, the equation is simple Ramones + Stooges + Weird Al + Pizza= Personal and the Pizzas.

Blood Brothers-First Blood Mix
Two guys mixed together the best songs and dialogue from all those awesome 80s movies that involve some young punk who gets his act together to kick some major ass. If you’re a male of a certain vintage this will warm your heard during these cold winter months. This has been the soundtrack to my family’s life for the past couple of months. It’s only a download:
http://www.movieviral.com/2010/10/03/blood-brothers-first-blood-80s-action-movie-mixtape-will-fight-you-to-the-death/

Buckingham/Nicks-s/t
This did not come out in this century and (unfortunately) has not been reissued, but I finally discovered it. It could have possible the worst album cover of all time, but the jams contained herein are gold. Summery tunes that have a bit of darkness around the edges, you can see why the mighty Mac picked these two.

Frieder Butzmann-I’m a Seven Inch Single 7″
German kook whose been at this for a while, dropped this little slice of heaven earlier this year. It tells about the life of a seven inch single. The backside is what else, a dreary lament about being the backside of a seven inch single and not “Nicole Kidman’s backside.”

White Fence s/t lp
This guy managed to cram a boatload of late sixties psych on this lp. It’s a ton of fun to listen to.

Umberto “Prophecy of the Black Widow” lp
This guy managed to cram a boatload of Goblin/Carpenter love on this lp. It’s spooooooky.

Garbo’s Daughter demo cs
The hottest thing since Cher went solo.

No Balls-everything
From the ashes of the Brainbombs comes No Balls. Tight pummeling riffs that wash over you again and again. If you like drone, but sometimes think things should be heavier, check these Swedes out.