2008 Favorite

Cold Sun Dark Shadows

It's so rare to find an album from the late 60's/early 70's that you've never heard of and discover that it actually rules. I love psychedelic music, but I also think 99% of it is completely lame. Cold Sun are the rare exception. This is classic. It's better than everything.

New Records and Restocks 12/13/8

A bunch of records came in this week, mostly restocks of recent things: Vinyl Black Angels Directions To See A Ghost Baron Zen Rhythm Trax Vol. 3 (Stone's Throw) Afrika Bambaataa Planet Rock the Album (4Men Reissue) Black Moth Super Rainbow Drippers Blank Dogs The Fields Blue Sabbath Black Cheer Endless Blockade Final Solution Brotherman OST (Numero) Illa J Yancey Boys Jedi Mind Tricks A History of Violence Erkin Koray S/T Neil Landstrumm Lord For 39 Quid Lindstrom Where You Go I Go Too Nite Jewel Good Evening OCS (Thee Ohsees) 4 Raccoo-oo-oon s/t V/A Eccentric Soul 6- Twinight's Lunar Rotation (4XLP Numero) V/A Dancehall-Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture Vol. 1 & 2 (Soul Jazz) Wavves s/t CDs Blank Dogs The Fields Glass Candy Deep Gems Shop Assistants Will Anything Happen i think that's about all...

Staff picks are happenin' now.

Check out our staff picks section for best-of lists for 2008. I just posted mine, with Adam's to come soon. -evan

Evan's 2008 picks

Here commences our new staff picks section! Check back here for our favorites in review and pick lists. I'll start things off with my favorites of the last year. CDs: Matmos, Supreme Balloon (Matador) A classic electronic record recorded with classic synthesizers. Matmos manage to create an album with a sense of both the old and new, without seeming either revivalist or overwrought, and with overall playful atmosphere. People who aren't into electronic music will appreciate this one, too. Philly Sound Get Down -- Philly Funk Instrumentals (Funkadelphia) A top-notch compilation of rare 60's funk grooves from the Philadelphia area. I put this on in the store every so often, and it's a visible customer-pleaser. Totally fun music, and addictive! Thee Oh Sees, The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In (Tomlab) This is a simple album, in a lot of ways, and is enjoyable exactly for that reason. These are terse, fuzzy rock n' roll tunes that spiral outward with a slight echo, just enough to pull you in. LAKE, Oh, The Places We'll Go (K) A local favorite, for good reason! Probably the closest thing to an Olympia supergroup, featuring members of Kickball, Live Active Cultures, #bear, and (formerly) Palisades. Harmonies, horns, and hot beats abound. Cause Co-Motion!, It's Time! Singles & EPs 2005-08 (Slumberland) I caught these folks at the Big Room on Legion in November. Fantastically catchy and endearingly sloppy, they fall shambolically between unruly punk and stop-on-a-dime power pop. Fans of the Undertones and Jad Fair will dig this one. Home Blitz, Home Blitz (Gulcher) Teenage rock n' roll is alive and well, and his name is Daniel DiMaggio, a New Jersey kid who puts out blurts of songs under the name Home Blitz. A rough, unfiltered and ecstatic gem. Cheveu, Cheveu (Born Bad) Cheveu are sort of the sonic equivalent to pulp-fiction -- their sizzly guitars, unrelenting drum machine beats, and suave croon recall the same kind of bright colors and contrasts, and its brutishness. Fans of Chrome and Metal Urbain will definitely be able to appreciate this album. LPs: Alemayehu Eshete, Ethiopian Urban Modern Music, Vol. 2 (Buda Musique) A fantastic collection of hard-hitting Ethiopian funk tunes, fronted by singer Alemayehu Eshete. A fascinating and completely entrancing blend of American soul, funk, and Arabic influences. Superb! Also be sure to check out the Ethiopiques series on CD, put out by the same label. Krysmopompas, Heute Schlafen - Morgan Aufwachen (S-S) A fine debut by a new German band, firmly in the classic 80's Neu Deutsch-Welle (German new wave) style. Economical, stylish, with touches of synthesizer. Not unlike Wire, The Minutemen, or Die Goldenen Zitronen. The Fiery Furnaces, Gallowsbird's Bark (Rough Trade) The Fiery Furnaces' 2007 debut finally makes it to LP. Recorded in a few short days, Gallowsbird's Bark is a kaleidoscopic view into the rich musical world of the Friedberger brother-and-sister duo. While you can sense wafts of American music hall, the Kinks, and English post-punk in the mix, it's unplacably, perfectly all their own. Very recommended! -evan

New Releases 12/9/08

There won't be too many new CDs for the rest of the year, but we do have Cat Power's Dark End of the Street EP (Double 10" vinyl only) and the new Common CD.

As far as DVDs, the big news is that we now have Lost Season 4 and Batman: The Dark Knight, plus Flow, Man on Wire, and Horton Hears a Who!

New Releases for the Week of 12/2/08

We really only have one new release this week, which is the CD/DVD edition of the latest installment in the Neil Young Archives series, Sugar Mountain-Live at Canterbury House 1968.  It's an enjoyable, low-key solo set, mostly consisting of Buffalo Springfield songs (so you can hear Neil sing the ones Richie sang) and material from his first album (sounding a lot better stripped down here than on the LP, which was over-tinkered with in the studio). You might want to know, however, that the "DVD" is really just an audio DVD of the same recording that's on the CD, but with technically better sound quality. There is no video footage to accompany it, just a picture of Neil and some snow flakes. There is also a fancy five-minute commercial for the Archives box set that Reprise is now promising a 2009 release of. Okay, sure. And the box set will only cover 1963-1972, so we'll have to wait another 20 years for one that digs deeper into the Time Fades Away/Tonight's the Night/On the Beach trilogy and all the great live recordings from that era.

-adam