Tuesday, August 18, 2009

((((( NEW ARRIVALS: Books & Magazines )))))

GALACTIC ZOO DOSSIER #8 MAG+CD
*** "Issue number 8 of this hand-drawn psychedelic underground fave. Includes interviews with VASHTI BUNYAN, DJIN AQUARIAN (YA HO WHA 13), PETER WALKER, MANI NEUMEIR (GURU GURU), and BILL HAM, along with features on DEL SHANNON, BLUE THINGS, EDDIE HAZEL, GEORGE-EDWARDS GROUP, HOYT AXTON, MV & EE, KIM FOWLEY, SKIP JAMES vs. CREAM, and more. Packaged with a CD featuring unreleased tracks from Ya Ho Wha 13, Vashti Bunyan, Peter Walker, MONSTER MAGNET, LA OTRACINA, NAKED DEATH, CHRISTINA CARTER, RUTHANN FRIEDMAN, SAMARA LUBELSKI, and others."

MINUS TIMES #29 MAG
*** "Putting the 'Great' back in Depression, the latest The Minus Times is a 72-page double issue starring Dave Eggers, Sam Lipsyte and David Berman. Issue #29 brings in a cross-section of American talent: rock & rollers Sam Beam, Will Oldham, Colin Gagon, Neil Michael Hagerty; artists Harrison Haynes, Hope Gangloff, Forest Juziuk, and Steve Keene; cartoonist and animator Brad Neely; filmmakers Kathy Egan and Andrew Pope; poets Joe Wenderoth and Mike Topp; photographer Michael McLeod, along with writers Brian Howe, Theodore McDermott, Patrick deWitt, Wells Tower, Brent Van Daley, Mike Laus, and Jeff Johnson. Handsomely weathered scene stealers one and all." Published by DRAG CITY. Featuring Wazoo's FOREST JUZIUK.

THE PORTABLE FEBRUARY by David Berman BOOK
*** "DAVID BERMAN has spent the last two decades in the public eye, stalking out his own territory as the leader of the rock band SILVER JEWS as well as poet and writer of the book Actual Air. In both cases, his address to the world has been marked with a singular touch; a literate, yet low-budget approach to communicating the beauty and absurdity of Earth-based life. The Portable February is a cheaply-priced but handsomely appointed hardcover compendium of the Berman visual sensibility: a left-handed, child-like scrawl, scored with a wit and observation that confutes the often primitive nature of his line. As the artist himself put it, 'The drawings are pitched into some rudimentary space of public art, a place we might think of as between and below Gary Larson and Raymond Pettibon.' Hardcover book, 97 pages.

((((( NEW ARRIVALS: DVD ))))) Fugazi & Silver Jews!

FUGAZI Instrument DVD
*** BACK IN STOCK!

SILVER JEWS Silver Jew DVD
*** BACK IN STOCK!

((((( NEW ARRIVALS: Vinyl ))))) Six Organs, Pissed Jeans, Flying Lotus, Bibio...

BIBIO Ambivalence Avenue 2xLP
*** BACK IN STOCK!

FLYING LOTUS Los Angeles 2xLP
*** BACK IN STOCK!

HUSKER DU Zen Arcade 2xLP
*** BACK IN STOCK!

JAY-Z Death Of Auto-Tune 12"
*** Feat. KANYE.

PISSED JEANS King Of Jeans LP / CD
*** "King of Jeans is Pissed Jeans formal and uneasy acceptance of adulthood, by way of one hell of a rock record. From simple minds and simple fabrics comes this King of Jeans. And there can be only one.

SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE rtz 3xLP / 2xCD
*** BACK IN STOCK!

SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE Luminous Night LP / CD
*** *** RECOMMENDED "Through dark days and glowing nights, new horizons are visible throughout Luminous Night. Be it in the face of spiritual crisis or catharsis, BEN CHASNY refuses to stagnate, or to evolve in predictable fashion."

((((( NEW ARRIVALS: CDs ))))) Jay Reatard, Pissed Jeans, Six Organs, Brendan Benson & more

THE ANTLERS Hospice CD
*** "Hospice resonates on debilitating sonic and lyrical levels, from hypnotic harp and tension-ratcheting builds, amidst contrasting shards of ambient noise, sweeping strings and smoky horns."

BACHELORETTE My Electric Family CD
*** "Bachelorette’s music beams to us through a universe of unconquered psychedelic pop, where long beams of sunlight extend to infinity, and blue moons shimmer in an acousto-synthetic haze."

BRENDAN BENSON My Old, Familiar Friend CD
*** "Taking a break from writing, recording, and touring with the Grammy-winning Raconteurs, Benson drops his fourth album." 11 tracks.

SIR RICHARD BISHOP Freak Of Araby LP / CD
*** Sun City Girl Sir Richard gets deep into the Middle Eastern mystic with hand drums, percussion, bass, drums, electric guitars and a heavy dose of Moroccan chanters, all of it captured with depth, detail and sympathy."

DEL CLOSE & JOHN BRENT How To Speak Hip CD
*** "The 1959 'didactic tool to be used by the listener to learn the secret language of the 'hipster'. As a parody of language-learning tools, the album presents basic concepts such as "cool" and "uncool," as well as vocabulary building ("dig", "dig it", "dig yourself, baby", "dig the chick", "dig the cat", "What a drag!"). However, the hipster rebels against participating in the teaching tool, leading to a humorously compromised teaching style."

ERIC COPELAND Alien In A Garbage Dump CD
*** "Compiles 'Alien In a Garbage Dump' & 'Al Anon' vinyl EPs." Member of BLACK DICE.

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS Live From Austin City Limits CD+DVD
*** "Entire performance on both CD and DVD -- over an hour on each disc."

HELENA ESPVALL & MASAKI BATOH Overloaded Ark CD
*** "Armed with a veritable cornucopia of instruments, HELENA ESPVALL (ESPERS) and MASAKI BATOH (GHOST) backed by two of Batoh’s Ghost-mates deliver a trove of traditional & ancient musics alongside self-composed explorations."

FLORENCE & THE MACHINE Lungs CD
*** "With several strong singles taking up a fair portion of this debut release, it's clear that Florence Welch is as much a pop writer as she is a left-field artist, tempered by an admiration for soul and contemporary indie."

MARK FOSSON The Lost Takoma Sessions CD
*** "A first-time release of MARK FOSSON’s unissued 1977 sessions recorded for Takoma and produced by JOHN FAHEY. Fosson’s sound is light, smooth, and melodious, and he plays with his own individual personality."

LIGHTS Rites CD
*** "LIGHTS are a Brooklyn musical troupe that have shaped psychedelic mojo pop into a serpentine smoke ring, floating over both New York’s forbidding urban scapes and the West Coast’s sunshine vibes."

MAGIK MARKERS Balf Quarry CD
*** "Long known for their shattering live appearances, Magik Markers have captured different moods and twitches, from tremoring mid-rhythms, a couple showers of hardcore, high flying free rock & several clinking music boxes of woe."

WILLIAM OLDHAM Joya CD
*** BACK IN STOCK!

PISSED JEANS King Of Jeans LP / CD
*** "King of Jeans is Pissed Jeans formal and uneasy acceptance of adulthood, by way of one hell of a rock record. From simple minds and simple fabrics comes this King of Jeans. And there can be only one.

JAY REATARD Watch Me Fall CD
*** "Memphis prolific punk wunderkind Jay Reatard has recorded an album chockful of irresistible melodies, the songs cascading with joyous hooks marked by a certain aggro negativity."

SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE Luminous Night LP / CD
*** RECOMMENDED "Through dark days and glowing nights, new horizons are visible throughout Luminous Night. Be it in the face of spiritual crisis or catharsis, BEN CHASNY refuses to stagnate, or to evolve in predictable fashion."

YAHOWHA 13 Magnificence In The Memory CD
*** "New jam from the Source Family vaults runs the gamut of a rainbow of styles, riffs & grooves sounding like German prog bands, psychedelic rock bands or the as-yet-uncreated avant sounds from the indie rock movement."

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

((( EVENTS ))) Calvin Johnson tonite; The Breeders at Stormy!

CALVIN JOHNSON & HIVE DWELLERS / CITY CENTER / TYVEK @ Yellow Barn - Tuesday, August 11
*** The excellent new band from K Records head Calvin Johnson makes its Ann Arbor debut w/ Fred Thomas & Ryan Howard's City Center and the always great/sloppy Tyvek. I think Brett Lyman & Forest Juziuk will be playing records inbetween/after.
416 W. Huron, A2 / 8PM / $5 / ALL AGES

THE BREEDERS @ Stormy Records!! - Friday, August 14
*** The same day they play the Crofoot, THE BREEDERS will do a little meet & greet / in-store signing at Dearborn's Stormy Records! They won't be there long, maybe an hour, so make sure you don't miss them. Windy & Carl are honored to welcome the breeders into their shop and introduce them in person to so many nice folks. The Breeders will have tour merch for sale while they are in the shop, and posters, etc., for signing. Stormy is located between Schaefer and Wyoming, on the north side of the streeet, in the upper level of Green Brain Comics.
13210 Michigan Ave., Dearborn / 2PM / free / ALL AGES 313-581-9322

((((( NEW ARRIVALS: Vinyl ))))) Amon Duul II, for real!

AMON DUUL II Yeti 2xLP
*** NOW ON VINYL! Wicked, insane reissue of Amon Duul II's great Yeti album on double-vinyl. Don't sleep on it! Methinks it's a limited one.

((((( NEW ARRIVALS: CDs ))))) Blues Control, Blur, Soft Machine & more!

AMANDA BLANK I Love You CD
*** "From racy rap records to deeply moving electro-pop songs to records that channel Blondie and the Beasties at the same time, Blank's debut is a post-modern, subversive pop masterpiece."

BLUES CONTROL Local Flavor CD
*** RECOMMENDED "Fantastic newest shimmer from Blues Control. A touch of boogie rock has penetrated their beauteous extrapolations into the miasmic core of psychedelia and billowing fog of ambient space." So good!

BLUR A Beginner's Guide To Blue 2xCD
*** 25 of Blur's best songs, scrapping some of the hits and showcasing their artier side.

FRUIT BATS The Ruminant Band CD
*** "Using bright melodies, defiantly major-key chord structures, natural imagery mixed with the occasional blazing insight and tender observation, the Fruit Bats choogle through barn-floor stomp, Fleetwood Mac-esque shimmies, propulsive ‘70s country-rock jams and parlor piano soft-shoe."

JAMES LAVELLE Global Underground 37: Bangkok 2xCD
*** "An eclectic, psychedelic rainbow of sound, dazzling with colour. A spectrum of some of the most exciting sounds in electronic music today. Lavelle's finest mix to date!"

PROFESSOR LONGHAIR Red Beans 'n' Rice CD
*** The original Star Talent recordings; Sea Saint, New Orleans sessions; and Fess live in New Orleans -- 14 jams in all.

SOFT MACHINE Fourth/Fifth CD
SOFT MACHINE Six/Seven 2xCD

*** Dang! These guys rule. Is it jazz? Not-jazz? What is it!?! It's brilliance, that's what it is. And what's better than one Soft Machine album? How about two? Two in one package? Sure. Four in two packages? Yes, yeah, totally.

SUN RA Helsinki 1971 2xCD+DVD
*** The complete concert finally! At last!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

((( EVENTS ))) Calvin Johnson (K Records/Beat Happening) + City Center + Tyvek

CALVIN JOHNSON & Hive Dwellers / CITY CENTER / TYVEK
*** The excellent new band from K Records head Calvin Johnson makes its Ann Arbor debut w/ Fred Thomas & Ryan Howard's City Center and the always great/sloppy Tyvek. I think Brett Lyman & myself will be playing records inbetween/after.
Yellow Barn / 416 W. Huron, A2 / 8PM / $5 / ALL AGES

((((( NEW ARRIVALS: Vinyl ))))) Flying Lotus, Dead Weather 45, restocks

AIR Moon Safari LP
*** BACK IN STOCK!

THE DEAD WEATHER Hang You From The Heavens 7"
*** Everybody wants this thing so we got this thing.

FLYING LOTUS Los Angeles 2xLP
FLYING LOTUS Reset Ep 12"
FLYING LOTUS 1983 LP

*** BACK IN STOCK!

JAMES PANTS & EGYPTIAN LOVER Cosmic Rapp 12"
*** BACK IN STOCK! This thing has been flying out of here. Serious best-selling 12" here.

MAJOR LAZER Guns Don't Kill People... Lazer's Do 2xLP
*** NOW ON VINYL!

((((( NEW ARRIVALS: CDs ))))) Twisted Nerve, Jim James, Modest Mouse, Georgia Anne Muldrow & more

v/a TWISTED NERVE 10th ANNIVERSARY mixed by Andy Votel CD
*** RECOMMENDED "A high-speed mutant mixtape from B-musicologist Andy Votel, using tracks exclusively selected from the vaults of his own independent non-record label Twisted Nerve. A 40 track masala of DIY classics, B-sides, rarities and remixes celebrating a decade of teenage garage jams, Mancunian psychsploitation, arkhestral communism and workshop Pop."

CYRO BAPTISTA'S BANQUET OF THE SPIRITS Infinito CD
*** Dusty Groove says: "A richly creative, cool blend of Brazilian roots, jazzy inflections, and other inventive experimentation."

BIG STAR #1 Record / Radio City CD
*** "Contains two albums both in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Album's of All Time. Includes two tracks never before available on CD."

JIM JAMES as YIM YAMES Tribute To... CD
*** "Debut solo release from MY MORNING JACKET's Jim James, comprised of George Harrison songs that James recorded back in 2001."

JONSI & ALEX Riceboy Sleeps CD
*** "The instrumental side project from SIGUR ROS member Jon Thor Birgisson and collaborator Alex Somers. Riceboy Sleeps is human in a profound and verging-on spiritual way. Its slowly evolving abstract landscapes are both edifying and life-affirming, existing in a contemplative dream-state, unconstrained and mesmeric, seemingly outside time."

MEDESKI MARTIN & WOOD Radiolarians 3 CD
*** "The third and final installment in their Radiolarians trilogy, maybe the strongest and most cohesive album of the Radiolarian's series."

MODEST MOUSE No One's First & You're Next CD
*** "A collection of newly recorded songs from the We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank and Good News for People Who Love Bad News sessions, as well as two rare b-sides."

GEORGIA ANNE MULDROW Umsindo CD
*** "Well known for her unorthodox soundscaping and inspired traditional African Song structuring, UMSINDO is her second full length with subject matter ranging from world politics to the metaphysical sciences-with laserlike synthwork to match!"

THE OCTOPUS PROJECT Golden Beds CD
*** "Five different tunes from five different rooms of the neon mansion the band has built - from big-riff Rock to tiny electronics to blissful sing-alongs. Dip your arms deep into a kaleidoscopic candy jar filled with tasty Octopus-flavored treats." There are a whole bunch of videos on here too.

JULIAN PLENTI ...is Skyscraper CD
*** A.K.A. Paul Banks of INTERPOL. "This incredibly varied album runs the gamut from gorgeous folk-tinged acoustic songs to huge, orchestral guitar anthems. The palette changes from black and white to color and back, from regal Eastern European synth sounds to sad but triumphant brass."