Geez, short week…all of a sudden it’s Tuesday, and a flock of new releases just landed.
Incoming!: You’ve got your indie godfathers and godmothers like Yo La Tengo, The Clean and Polvo with brand new albums; a new Circulatory System featuring Jeff Mangum and other Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia Tremor Control gents; collections of singles and essential etc from Damon & Naomi and Maserati; The Stone Roses and The Feelies reissued (for real this time, we think); plus new albums from new young turks like Vivian Girls (awesome at C. Monkey a couple weeks ago), Health, BLK JKS, Sondra Lerche and Taken By Trees (ex-Concretes vocalist), amongst others. Oh, and a nearly unnecesasary amount of Beatles remasters. Last week saw the arrival of new full-lengths from Apples In Stereo, The Entrance Band, former Cocteau Twin Robin Guthrie, David Bazan, plus Thurston Moore’s new book ‘Grunge’ and the Buddha Machine-esque Black Box gadget (shaped like a coffin, just in time for Halloween) and loads more.
Wax On: Two new Slumberland slabs: Pains of Being Pure At Heart 45 and Brown Recluse Sings 12″; Times New Viking 45, Chambermaids 12″ and Mayyors 12″ (hurry); new LPs from Yo La Tengo, Health, Polvo, Taken By Trees, Jim O’Rourke and Blk Jks; The Entrance Band on DLP with bonus track and download codes; and lastly LP re-issues for The Smiths, Ocean, Wooden Shjips, The Tallest Man On Earth, Kurt Vile, Thee Oh Sees, The Feelies, The Beatles, Wilco (‘Summerteeth’ reissue), Lucinda Williams & Brian Jonestown Massacre…
We spent last week totally gobsmacked by Motorpsycho’s new, vinyl-only, Albini-engineered, Norsk-Prog epic, Cheap Trick’s glorious ‘Sgt Pepper – Live’ CD (can’t wait to see the DVD), a timely reissue of Those Bastard Souls’ masterpiece ’20th Century Chemical’ with bonus tracks, and continued, extended worship for Lightning Dust’s recent electro-folk opus.
The Top Ten:
1. Motorpsycho — Child of the Future (Rune Grammofon)
2. Polvo — In Prism (Merge)
3. Those Bastard Souls — Twentieth Century Chemical (+6 bonus tracks)” (Darla)
4. Yo La Tengo — Popular Songs (Matador)
5. Smith Westerns — S-T (HoZac)
6. Jonsi & Alex — Riceboy Sleeps (XL)
7. Mayyors — Deads EP (Hurling Man)
8. Damon & Naomi — The Sub Pop Years (202020)
9. Times New Viking — Move To California b/w City On Drugs (Matador)
10. Thee Oh Sees — Sucks Blood (Castle Face)