The 2009 Albums Thread

Beck to Reissue One Foot in the Grave

http://pitchfork.com/news/34858-beck-to-reissue-ione-foot-in-the-gravei/

This is still one of my favorite albums ever…nice to see all of those bonus tracks.

Sweet. That's my favorite Beck album by far.

Hmm:
"'Hard Islands' is the assured and confident new installment from 25 year old Nathan Fake, the Norfolk born and bred precocious young heir to the UK electronica
throne who has kept fans of fuzzy-edged synths and maximal acidic techno beats alike guessing ever since his debut release at the tender age of 19.

A six track long serious contender in the loudness wars, 'Hard Islands' sets up camp in that fuzzy middle ground between mini-album and EP that so many
of our alt-danceheroes are choosing to occupy in this post-physical format era, where each track in the complementary collection can also stand alone as
a hedonist's anthem in its own right. Easily as melodic and musically ambitious as any of his previous works, the 'HardIslands' selection nonetheless edges
towards the tougher end of electronica that is the usual domain of Warp and Rephlex stalwarts like Clark and Aphex Twin, whilst all the time never losing
sight of that acute awareness of what will work on the dancefloor that had already enabled young Mr Fake tick off many of the world's best clubs on his
touring itinerary by the time he had reached his mid-twenties."



And the new Dirty Projectors is just as good as expected.

In recent interviews, Devo has confirmed that they will be completing their new album.  The Studio Notes section of the November 27 issue of Rolling Stone stated that "Devo are working on their first album of new material since 1990's Smooth Noodle Maps. 'We have about 17 songs we're testing out," says frontman Mark Mothersbaugh. 'We've already been contacted by 20 producers - including Snoop Dogg and Fatboy Slim.'" Fall 2009 has been confirmed as a release date.

Devo announced in early 2009, that they would be performing at SXSW on March 20th, with a warmup show in Dallas on March 18th. At these shows, Devo performed a new stage show utilizing synchronized video, similar to the 1982 tour, new costumes, and three new songs: "Don't Shoot, I'm a Man!", "What We Do", and "Fresh". All of these songs included a video backdrop which the band performed in front of. Devo has also confirmed they will be performing at All Tomorrow's Parties on May 6th and 8th, with the May 6th performance featuring the band performing their first album, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, in its entirety. The May 8th performance is to be a "greatest hits" show, for the ATP "Fans Strike Back" event.

On Friday, April 10th, 2009, Devo debuted the music video for "Don't Shoot (I'm a Man)" on their website, through Vimeo.



http://vimeo.com/4089275?pg=embed&sec=

Sweet. Hey, seth?



In other news, I just got my hands on an Emeralds tape that might be the best thing they've done thus far.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Moth_Super_Rainbow

http://www.myspace.com/blackmothsuperrainbow

Brand new BMSR album for anyone who may want to check it out:

http://rapidshare.com/files/221038259/Black_Moth_Super_Rainbow_-_Eating_Us__2009_.rar

I got it a little while ago.


First track is nice.

Woods - Songs of Shame and Sunlit 7"


Both are slabs of lo-fi psych perfection.


I'm still bitter about getting sick the night of and missing that Religious Knives/Woods (two bands that are way over due for DC shows) show at Velvet. :(

sweetcell wrote:
Pilot Speed (formerly just "Pilot"), from toronto, will be releasing an album in april.  they opened for the dears some time back (2006?) and i thought they were really great (infinitely better than The National, who were openers #2 - ugh).  i'm excited to hear that they'll be touring again.  not sure how good their recorded output is, but their live show is highly recommended.

New Album + Tracklist

Hey friends,

We've got some exciting news. The new record will be out April 2009 on iTunes, and in good old fashioned compact-disc format in the US and Canada, from the lovely people at Wind-Up Records and MapleMusic Recordings, respectively. It's called Wooden Bones…..which is also the title of a song some of you may of heard us play last time we hit the road. Most of it was completed here in Toronto and NYC with our new friend Kevin Killen steering the ship

Here's the tracklisting:
1 Put The Phone Down
2 Light You Up
3 Bluff
4 Ain't No Life
5 Up On The Bridge
6 Where Does It Begin?
7 What Is Real, What Is Doubt
8 Today I Feel Sure
9 Midnight Fires
10 Wooden Bones
11 Open Arms

The first single is Put The Phone Down, which should be hitting the airwaves this week, with a video to accompany it towards the end of March. We're also planning to start streaming different new tracks for your listening pleasure in the coming weeks on the ol' interweb. Keep checking our MySpace page for a preview of the new record starting with "Put The Phone Down"

Live dates are starting to come together, we'll have some more info on this real soon.

You know, it's been a somewhat long process for us…. it's hard to believe our last record was in '06. Even Axl Rose managed to get his record out between then and now. But on the upside we're really excited about this new music and what it means as a step forward for this band… and we really look forward to letting you hear it. As always, thanks for your patience and support. We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed creating it.

Love,
Pilot Speed
http://www.myspace.com/pilotspeed 

album available for pre-order on iTunes, which will get you a bonus track and a signed poster from the band (mo' info)

reminder of the buzz they created last time they played the 930 (redux).  so i was wrong twice in my post: they played with the dears in january'07 (not 2006); and it was the annuals that sucked, not the national.  search function rules.

from the super furries:

"From April 17th for one week, Pitchfork TV will exclusively premier an 'SFA Presents' film showing the full story behind the construction of Dark Days / Light Years, along with interviews and other unseen footage…you can check it out here."

for the chronologically challenged and those who don't have jobs: the 17th is tomorrow.

Here's one for BookerT:

Hole Class - Self-Titled LP


From the label:

"Mostly recorded on a farm in Ohio in 2006 by Beth Murphy (Times New Viking) and Rob Enbom (Eat Skull). Great pop songs from this duo with a "gothic country"
vibe that vaguely calls to mind an interpretation of Nancy and Lee by Neil and Jennifer. There is a stripped down feel and intimacy to everything here.
From roadtrip singalongs to true heartbreakers, a perfect album."

—–

From Art for Spastics:

"In other Eat Skull news, Meds has just issued an LP of the Hole Class cassette which Rob recorded with Beth from Times New Viking while he was living
in Ohio between The Hospitals' Employer Destroyers tour and moving to Portland and founding Eat Skull. Yeah, that tape was my first inkling that Rob had
any knack for pop songwriting. Before that, I mainly knew him as my favorite x-factor in various free-flailing improv bands and noise groups (Gang Wizard,
Vholtz, Hale Zukas, Horse Dwarves, etc.), although I also remember the time I saw him play a Davis house-show leading a band called Creepy Crawly Claw,
who did the best "Sex Bomb" cover I've ever heard or witnessed. He did a handstand on top of a ratty keyboard with spindly little legs and walked on the
ceiling of Mick Mucus' Charred Dog House before falling on his head. I thought for sure that he was injured, but he popped right back up with the mic clenched
in his teeth.

I'm so glad to see that Hole Class make it to vinyl after all this time. If you can imagine how Thee Duchess & the Duke might sound with some sweet kiwi-psych
damage, then you might be in the ballpark of what this album sounds like. The whole tape is on here, plus some unheard goodies."  


Digging thus far.

azaghal1981 wrote:
Here's one for BookerT:

Hole Class - Self-Titled LP

hook that shit up, yo

n/m, got it. i'll buy beth a drink or three next time she's in town to make up for the $$.

Brand new album!

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO UFO
"Lord of the Underground: Vishnu & the Magic Elixir"

http://tinyurl.com/dh4gl6

sweetcell wrote:
from the super furries:

"From April 17th for one week, Pitchfork TV will exclusively premier an 'SFA Presents' film showing the full story behind the construction of Dark Days / Light Years, along with interviews and other unseen footage…you can check it out here."

for the chronologically challenged and those who don't have jobs: the 17th is tomorrow.

Should be interesting.

On a DD/LY and Pitchfork note, I'm a bit nervously curious as to how they'll review the album.  If they give it "Best New Music,"  then what happens?

About to give this a listen.

Not sure how much of this is legitimate and how much is a joke:
"Aleph At Hallucinatory Mountain is the long-awaited new album
from Current 93 and their first album in three years,
following on from their double-platinum-selling album Black
Ships Ate The Sky, and is released on David Tibet's new label
Coptic Cat.

Aleph At Hallucinatory Mountain is the most unique, most
unpredictable and most powerful album yet from Current 93.
David has brought together an amazing and bizarre array of
talents from artists as varied as Nurse With Wound's Stapleton
and Liles, rock god phenomenon Andrew W.K., haunting chanteuse
and composer Baby Dee, Grammy award-winning genius Rickie Lee
Jones, the beautiful Hush Arbor's Keith Wood, world famous
porn-star (and winner of the Best Three Way Sex Scene and Best
Group Scene at the Adult Video Network awards) Sasha Grey,
Pantaleimon's enchanted Andria Degens, guitar-hero James
Blackshaw, Cyclobe and Coil's Ossian Brown, NYC legend Matt
Sweeney (ZWAN, Neil Diamond, Superwolf), extraordinary
percussionist supreme Alex Neilson (Red Krayola, Trembling
Bells, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy), counter-culture guru William
Breeze and heavenly cellist John Contreras (Marc Almond, Baby
Dee) and created an album unlike any other ever. Ever!"

Cryptacize - Mythomania


"Cryptacize deals in the unforgettable melody, the forsaken chord and the extravagant sentiment. It's a distinct kind of pleasure they offer, not casual
background or 'lifestyle' music. An unlikely synthesis of musical styles, Mythomania (Cryptacize's second) is an album not quite like any other. Nedelle
Torrisi's surefooted and richly nuanced vocal arabesques, like a modern day Freddie Mercury or Ronnie Spector, strangely complement Chris Cohen's guitar,
maniacally sped-up a la Les Paul or staccato and funny like Roy Smeck or Adolph Jacobs of the Coasters. Michael Carreira's syncopated drum corps rudiments
and pit-orchestra rave-ups propel the songs with a refreshingly buoyant touch that never lapses into rock music cliches. There are also widescreen cinematic
moments that take on a mournful and otherworldly pathos, like Henry Mancini's "Experiment in Terror" but with vocals by Cambodian 60's pop legend Ros Serey
Sothea - or like Arabic diva Fairouz singing along to a psychedelic film score by Popol Vuh.

Mythomania is a revelation by anyone's measure. The playing shows a new level of confidence and intent, as well as an artful sense of timing - it's the
sound of a band that's found themselves and is growing by leaps and bounds. Patiently built ideas are brought to full fruition, and it's recorded in fidelity
that surrounds you. The music is thicker and more continuous; in addition to autoharp, guitars and drums there are now electric basses, keyboards, piano,
even found or purely electronic sounds. And yet the same sense of space and suspense which guided 2008's Dig That Treasure is instantly recognizable on
Mythomania. In fact, the contrast between emptiness and fullness seems even greater now, just as the music's emotional highs and lows have been brought
into abnormally high relief.

As the title Mythomania suggests, reality is transformed when fiction is created upon fiction and though it may be barely recognizable or compatible with
the world of the everyday, this reality can also be beautiful - see for example the album's title track, an allegorical tale about the moon's view of earthly
folly. Exploring the paradox of human perception, a personal ambivalence about time and change, the notions of chance and free will versus those of eternalism
and fate, the limits of credibility and belief, Mythomania builds upon the philosophical concerns of Dig That Treasure. Like its predecessor, its tone
is often both happy and sad, pragmatic and mystical, hopeful and doomed.

Never ones to follow the rules, Cryptacize have been touring the US in a Toyota Corolla (opening for bands as diverse as Why?, Danielson, Shearwater, Ponytail,
Magik Markers, Marnie Stern, The Blow, Mirah, etc.) performing using miniature amps and drums - a sight which has caught many a spectator off guard. They
are a thoroughly unconventional band, but one that is somehow miraculously easy on the ears. Deceptively simple, using modest means to achieve ambitious
ends, never predictable, Cryptacize challenges preconceptions about how a song should go or how rock music should make you feel. But in the end, they always
leave you with a tune you can hum and lyrics that tell a story."


That's the second time in the last few weeks I've seen Fairouz name-checked in describing an album or artist. And I can actually hear the resemblance  in the first track.

8.3 from pitchfork

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12935-dark-dayslight-years/

Charlie wrote:
8.3 from pitchfork

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12935-dark-dayslight-years/

It's interesting to note the you download this album in FLAC format for $10, which is an interesting price point buy to me should be in the $6 to $7 range.
http://beggarsgroupusa.com/releases/dark-dayslight-years/

sweetcell wrote:

sweetcell wrote:
Pilot Speed (formerly just "Pilot"), from toronto, will be releasing an album in april.  they opened for the dears some time back (2006?) and i thought they were really great (infinitely better than The National, who were openers #2 - ugh).  i'm excited to hear that they'll be touring again.  not sure how good their recorded output is, but their live show is highly recommended.

New Album + Tracklist

Hey friends,

We've got some exciting news. The new record will be out April 2009 on iTunes, and in good old fashioned compact-disc format in the US and Canada, from the lovely people at Wind-Up Records and MapleMusic Recordings, respectively. It's called Wooden Bones…..which is also the title of a song some of you may of heard us play last time we hit the road. Most of it was completed here in Toronto and NYC with our new friend Kevin Killen steering the ship

Here's the tracklisting:
1 Put The Phone Down
2 Light You Up
3 Bluff
4 Ain't No Life
5 Up On The Bridge
6 Where Does It Begin?
7 What Is Real, What Is Doubt
8 Today I Feel Sure
9 Midnight Fires
10 Wooden Bones
11 Open Arms

The first single is Put The Phone Down, which should be hitting the airwaves this week, with a video to accompany it towards the end of March. We're also planning to start streaming different new tracks for your listening pleasure in the coming weeks on the ol' interweb. Keep checking our MySpace page for a preview of the new record starting with "Put The Phone Down"

Live dates are starting to come together, we'll have some more info on this real soon.

You know, it's been a somewhat long process for us…. it's hard to believe our last record was in '06. Even Axl Rose managed to get his record out between then and now. But on the upside we're really excited about this new music and what it means as a step forward for this band… and we really look forward to letting you hear it. As always, thanks for your patience and support. We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed creating it.

Love,
Pilot Speed
http://www.myspace.com/pilotspeed 

album available for pre-order on iTunes, which will get you a bonus track and a signed poster from the band (mo' info)

reminder of the buzz they created last time they played the 930 (redux).  so i was wrong twice in my post: they played with the dears in january'07 (not 2006); and it was the annuals that sucked, not the national.  search function rules.

new pilot speed streaming online here.  page doesn't lay out correctly for me in firefox, there is a large white "play the album" link at the top right corner that is mostly hidden. 

Also for BookerT:
Vaselines remasters leaked.



And this:
"Despite classical training at the Juilliard and the finest classical schools in the world, Psychedelic Horseshit became the purveyors of a new brand of
music, made for a nation too bankrupt to buy anything and too morbidly obese to dance: what urban tastemakers would later dub 'shitgaze.' Their self-released
'Golden Oldies' rescues their earliest, pioneering recordings, put forth in 2005-06 on primitive, circular pieces of plastic that our ancestors called
'CDRs.' These tracks truly capture the spirit of America during a sad era: confused, in disarray, yet determined to plod forward all the same." – Alan
Lomax IV, 2079


One of the funnier/more clever album descriptions I've read in a while.