OUR FAVORITE NEW MUSIC & MOVIES! - Amoeba Music

RAd
The Soft Moon – The Soft
Moon (CApTUrED TrACkS)
Puro Instinct – Headbangers
In Ecstacy (MExICAN SUMMEr)
The Decemberists –The King
Is Dead (CApITOL)
Hercules & Love Affair –
Blue Songs (MOSHI MOSHI)
Esben & the Witch –
Violet Cries (MATADOr)
Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never
Die But You Will (SUB pOp)
La Sera – La Sera (HArDLY ArT)
Light Asylum – In Tension EP
PJ Harvey – Let England
Shake (ISLAND)
Dom – Sun Bronzed
Greek Gods (ASTrALWErkS)
Tip:
read my blog….www.amoeba.com/brad
bRENdAN
Underworld – Barking
(OM rECOrDS)
British Sea Power – Valhalla
Dancehall (rOUgH TrADE)
David Bowie – Station to
Station (Deluxe Edition) (EMI)
Doctor Who: The Complete
Fifth Series (2010)
The Venture Bros: Season 4,
Vol. 1 (2010)
44 MUSIC WE LIKE H Spring/Summer 2011
bRIAN g.
The Twilight Sad – The Wrong
Car 12” (FATCAT rECOrDS)
In September 2010, Scottish shoegazers The
Twilight Sad released their first new-ish material
since the previous September (their sophomore
album, Forget The Night Ahead). The Wrong
Car is a four-song Ep, released as a 12” single
only, featuring two new tracks recorded during
the album sessions, and two remixes of album
tracks. The title track opens with delicate piano
plunks as the guitar rage builds, then erupts
with a drum burst before the cinematic, lilting
string arrangement comes out of the ether. Lead
singer James graham’s impassioned vocals and
typically-moroseful lyrics paint the picture of an
undoubtedly desperate situation. As the song
ebbs and crescendoes across seven-and-a-half
minutes, graham’s vocals become ever-increasingly
intense, flailing, and seemingly singing for
his life. It’s a dramatic, disheartening affair that,
while it would have fit perfectly on Forget The
Night Ahead, is such a highlight that it lends itself
perfectly to a stand-alone release. The second
of the new tracks, “Throw Yourself Into The Water
Again,” is one of the band’s angriest,
most bitter rockers — opening with
the lacerating line, “And we’re dancing
over your grave” — stomping
drums and bombastic fuzz-guitar
riffs galore. On the B-side of remixes,
fellow Scottish post-rockers
Mogwai give Forget The Night Ahead ballad,
“The room,” an electronic makeover,
with the gentle piano still intact, and Scottish
electronic musicians Errors turn The
Sad’s “Reflection Of The Television” into a
thumping house banger. Since the Ep’s
release, James graham has noted that
the direction of the band’s third album
has mostly done away with their wall-ofsound
approach in favor of more keyboards
and electronics, which would make the featured
remixes a perfect bridge into the future. I eagerly
await the results. In the meantime, I’m spinning
The Wrong Car ad nauseam — I can’t get
enough of it.
Cherry Ghost – Beneath
This Burning Shoreline
(HEAVENLY rECOrDS)
Cherry Ghost will probably never find an American
audience. There has not been a domestic
release of either of their two albums; their British
record label, Heavenly records, despite their
best efforts having released three singles (to
date) from this album, has seemingly given up
on the band (the falling-out with parent company
EMI notwithstanding); and the British press
that had been spouting the band as buzzworthy
when Cg appeared in 2007 has largely forgotten
about them as well (’tis the nature of any music
press anyway). All I can say is it’s their loss—
Cherry ghost’s second album Beneath This Burning
Shoreline is a bona fide masterpiece. equal
parts Smiths and Sinatra, lead singer/guitarist/
composer Simon Aldred spins tales of haunted
lovers, desperate workingmen, loss, faith, misery,
perseverance, death — all the loaded subjects.
And while it all sounds too heavy on paper, the
band pulls off all 13 tracks with epic grandeur,
buoyancy, and gravitas; never sinking into complete
despair (“Diamond In The grind” comes
the closest), as a soothing string arrangement
often delivers a song’s redemption. The bubbly
anthems “Black Fang” and “kissing Strangers,”
as well as the country-fied “Only A Mother,”
perfectly balance the uplifting with the album’s
darker cuts, like the unnerving “A Month Of
Mornings” and the twangy gothic murder mystery,
“The Night They Buried Sadie Clay.” Fans of
Doves, Wilco, and The National will find much to
love with Cherry ghost.
The Radio Dept. – Passive
Aggressive: Singles 2002-2010
(LABrADOr)
At long last, a compilation that gathers a sorely
underappreciated band’s best bits from the past
eight years. Sweden’s The radio Dept. have been
consistently brilliant from day one; they specialize
in crafting dreamy guitar pop, and occasional
forays into twee-electronica have proven the
band’s versatility while remaining wholly engaging.
Across three incredible studio albums,
the band has left much of their best material
for non-album singles and Eps. While any track
from the first disc of this collection would make
a great introduction, my favorite will probably
always be “pulling Our Weight” from 2003. But
not to overlook such gems as “The Worst Taste
In Music,” “This past Week,” “Where Damage
Isn’t Already Done,” or their excellent cover of
The go-Betweens’ “Bachelor kisses.” The second
disc in this set features a handful of B-sides
and unreleased tracks, which is not only perfect
for the first-time listener, but also essential for
collectors (and maybe those fans who weren’t
able to get ahold of one of their numerous
blink-and-you-miss-it releases). Passive Aggressive
is only a milepost — this is where they’ve been,
now stay tuned for where they’re headed…
The Soft Moon – The Soft
Moon (CApTUrED TrACkS)
The Soft Moon (a.k.a. Luis Vasquez) creates
driving, brooding, lo-fi Krautrock. On his debut
self-titled album, the mood is dark, tense, and
dense, the vocals are barely-there, and before
you know it…it’s over. Like a long-lost rarities
collection from Joy Division or a very-aggro Can
that doesn’t overstay its welcome but casts quite
a long shadow, and sits nicely next to modern
contemporaries Wild Nothing, at least in terms
of emotional resonance. Sounds pitch-perfect
for night drives and bedsit wallflowering.
Yuck – Yuck (FAT pOSSUM rECOrDS)
Daydream Nation-era Sonic Youth noise collides
with hazy shoegaze on Yuck’s self-titled debut album.
The album is a sunny, careening trip through
a brief history of three decades of British underground
and American alternative music, from
the Dinosaur Jr.-dashing opener “get Away,”
the breezy single “georgia,” the dreamy pop of
“Stutter,” the Teenage Fanclub-copping jangler
“Sunday,” and the slow-burning one-two punch
of closing instrumental “rose gives A Lilly” and
the magnum sonic-noise opus/epic “rubber.“
get past the crude album artwork and let Yuck
soundtrack your summer.
CAROl
Little Fish – Baffled and Beat
(CUSTArD)
Dirtbombs – Party Store (IN THE
rED rECOrDS)
Lucinda Williams – Blessed
(LOST HIgHWAY)
Wanda Jackson – The Party
Ain’t Over (NONESUCH)
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
(VAgrANT rECOrDS)
The Fleshtones [Featuring
Lenny Kaye] – Brooklyn Sound
Solution (YEp rOC rECOrDS)
MUSIC WE LIKE H Spring/Summer 2011 45