Albums in 2005

[ratioci nation]

New Mountain Goats Album Out in April
 
 Aaron Mandel reports:
 Okay, who said, "a few [...] critics whose experience with drugs has largely been limited to listening to Lou Reed albums have enjoyed claiming that I don't sound "convincing.' If I'd've known these guys were gonna front like that, I'd've sent them postcards from jail, but hindsight is 20/20, I guess"? Oh, shit, are we still printing the headlines bigger than the articles? Guess you figured it out, then-- that's John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, talking to a Philadelphia paper last autumn about the move from writing fictional songs to basing his work on his own life.
 
 Last year's We Shall All Be Healed portrayed a clique of young drug users and general miscreants struggling to get their crap together; the material on the upcoming The Sunset Tree seems to cover an even earlier part of his life, a childhood that involved a lot of pop music (good) and parental abuse (bad). Darnielle went into the studio last November along with Peter Hughes, John Vanderslice, Franklin Bruno, Scott Solter, and cellist Erik Friedlander, coming out with 13 songs that are presumably a lot more life-affirming than we're making them sound. According to Darnielle, these 13:
 
 01 You or Your Memory
 02 Broom People
 03 This Year
 04 Dilaudid
 05 Dance Music
 06 Dinu Lipatti's Bones
 07 Up the Wolves
 08 Lion's Teeth
 09 Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod?
 10 Magpie
 11 Song for Dennis Brown
 12 Love Love Love
 13 Pale Green Things
 
 The album reportedly comes out April 26 in the U.S. and most of the world, a day earlier in the UK. This is the third Mountain Goats full-length to be released on 4AD Records, who no doubt signed the band solely to give their fellow Brits twenty-nine coveted hours of extra listening before East-Coast record stores open.
 
 The phrase "the sunset tree" comes from an obscure 19th-century religious song, "The Tyrolese Evening Hymn"; Darnielle says he took it from a scene in Samuel Butler's semi-autobiographical novel The Way Of All Flesh, where a clergyman beats his young son bloody because of a speech impediment that prevents the son from enunciating clearly while singing the hymn. Maybe the songs aren't that life-affirming after all... If you're raring to hear these songs (and, based on the radio session the Mountain Goats did for the BBC recently, you should be), a couple live dates have been announced between now and the record's release, so hopefully you live here:
 
 02-10 Los Angeles, CA - Echo Lounge
 02-12 Seattle, WA - Crocodile Cafe

[brennser]

markie is probably the only other one to have even a remote interest in this but Nick Kelly, formerly of The Fat Lady Sings just released his second solo album "Running Dog"
 
 http://www.selfpossessedrecords.com/

[vansmack]

On May 9, Matador Records will be releasing the 5th album by Austin, TX's SPOON,  'Gimme Friction' (OLE 660-2,1 CD/LP), worldwide with the exception of North America.  The album is coming out on May 10 in the US and Canada a via Merge.
 
 the tracklisting is as follows :
 
 The Beast and Dragon, Adored
 The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine
 I Turn My Camera On
 My Mathematical Mind
 The Delicate Place
 Sister Jack
 I Summon You
 The Infinite Pet
 Was It You?
 They Never Got You
 Merchants of Soul
 
 writes the band :
 
 "Gimme Fiction is the wildest Spoon LP to date - it's also Jim Eno's favorite. It was put to tape from July 'til September 2004, and like our last two albums it was co-produced with Mike McCarthy in Austin at Jim's Public HiFi studio. What else. . .it begins with the sound of a nice, long inhale and ends with the Tosca Strings. It covers such topics as long distance relationships, the apocalyptic bent of certain American Southerners, neckrugs, emotional shutdowns, Ralph Reed Jr., a musical called The Stranger Dance, and Marquette, Michigan. Did I mention it's the longest Spoon record yet?
 
 "In February we'll be playing the Saturday of All Tomorrow's Parties in Camber Sands, England, followed by a headlining show in London on Monday the 28th at the Garage."

[Relaxer]

Originally posted by brennser:
 
 June tour to follow - support act rumored to be up and coming band called Talentless Dross...
 

Who I'm sure will blow Sleater-Kinney out of the water. Because pretty much anyone could. Fatboy Slim, Ashlee Simpson, Wesley Willis, the Black Cat-Black Cat guy, me, etc. If you want to see a bunch of old woman yowling off-key and lecturing the audience, visit a musical convent.
 
 However, the new New Pornographers disc is great news, so I can't be too upset. Besides, S-K's album will come out, they'll get a few articles in the East Coast media, and it will sell 271 copies before drifting into the cut-out bins.

[brennser]

for kosmo
 
 
 Waxwings
 �??Leave Less Waiting�?� b/w �??Sky�??s A Mirror�?�
 Cass Records
 
 Brendan Benson
 �??What I�??m Looking For�?�
 V2 (download)
 
 It should be noted that the Waxwings aren�??t a singles band. These four corduroyed dudes have proven nothing if not how to make languid jangle stretch out over an entire record. Here, with two cuts plucked from the midsection of their latest full-length, Let�??s Make Our Descent, the pop-perfecters have selected a pair of jams that, though bursting with trademark Byrdsian harmonies, plucky rhythms and psych-poetic ambiguity, fairly trip over themselves as the grooves unwind. �??Leave Less Waiting�?� has a cocksure swagger that never really finds an audience for its confidence. �??Sky�??s A Mirror,�?� while packed full of verve, is layered with a kind of chaos that can�??t decide whether it wants to party or make you sit up and pay attention. The Waxwings are masters of the quick one as bracing tonic for the masterstrokes of languid, Rickenbacher and heavy-lidded-though-clear-headed pop land- and cloud-scapes. This double-shot simply doesn�??t play to their strengths.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT
   
 Meanwhile, surfers to the V2 website can get a taste of the latest offering from the Waxwings�?? partner-in-pop Brendan Benson. In fact, Benson produced the aforementioned Waxwings tracks at his Grand Studio, but we digress �?�
 
 �??What I�??m Looking For�?� is a slight romp directly through the heart of Benson country inasmuch as its lyrics �?? as well as Benson�??s earnest, measured and half-heartbroken delivery �?? play expertly with that lost-boy line between ambivalence and braggadocio. He reminds us that �??I visit hell on a daily basis/And I see the sadness in all your faces.�?� And then there�??s a little bass lick and he�??s back wondering how he doesn�??t know what he�??s looking for, but he�??s gonna look some more. It�??s an airtight and irresistible construction. And if it�??s any indication of his forthcoming album, Alternative to Love, OC viewers and indie-pop fans alike should soon be getting wind of Benson.

[brennser]

more geezer rock
 
 Echo and the Bunnymen are currently locked away in a studio in their native Liverpool working on new material for a yet to be titled ninth studio album with venerable producer Hugh Jones behind the boards. Jones, who has produced Gene, Heidi Berry, and Fiat Lux in the past, goes back a ways with the Bunnymen, having engineered their debut Crocodiles in 1980 and produced the follow up Heaven Up Here in 1981.

[Bags]

Is this sans Ian McCulloch?  If not, have they put out anything recently with him, and is it any good?  (Note, I'm a Porcupine, Crocodiles, Ocean Rain era fan....)

[dotdot]

Originally posted by brennser:
  more geezer rock
 
 Echo and the Bunnymen are currently locked away in a studio in their native Liverpool working on new material for a yet to be titled ninth studio album with venerable producer Hugh Jones behind the boards. Jones, who has produced Gene, Heidi Berry, and Fiat Lux in the past, goes back a ways with the Bunnymen, having engineered their debut Crocodiles in 1980 and produced the follow up Heaven Up Here in 1981.

Will Ian and Co. please call it a fucking day?  NO ONE wants a new Echo LP

[xneverwherex]

Originally posted by El Tee:
  No one will care but me;)
 Glen Phillips - Winter Pays For Summer
   <img src="http://app.topica.com/banners/template_content/6986/34362/709323/imgImage1.jpeg?1107298885" alt=" - " />
 
 Release 3/29
 Tracklist
 1 Duck and Cover
 2 Thankful
 3 Courage
 4 Released
 5 Cleareyed
 6 Falling
 7 Half Life
 8 True
 9 Easier
 10 Finally Fading
 11 Simple
 12 Gather
 13 Don't Need Anything
 

this is great news! since i went to ucsb and used to listen to toad all the time its always good to read that glen & company are still making music. met him long while ago in Santa Barbara and they were a pretty cool group of guys (meaning toad the wet sprocket). now ill have to go see what lapdog is up to!
 
 -r

[eltee]

Lapdog isn't up to much.
 If you're local, Glen will tour for his album (full band). Other details on album:
 Notes from Jon Fields, Producer:
 Glen - gtrs-singing
 Pete Thomas - dr/perc
 Jon R. Fields - keys,gtrs, etc
 Jim Anton - bass
 Andy Sturmer/Glen - bgvs
 Ken Chastain - perc
 Add'l sounds from Steven Miller, Chris Testa, and Doug...forgot his last name on Sax.
 (www.paramountrecording.com studio c clearmountain mix)
 A few songs were written w/ Dan Wilson and one or two songs with Jon Brion.

[eltee]

Stellastarr* plans a summer release.

[HoyaSaxa03]

Originally posted by xneverwherex:
  this is great news! since i went to ucsb and used to listen to toad all the time its always good to read that glen & company are still making music.

my favorite wuss-rock song of all time is toad's "windmills", specifically some version i found from UCSB ...

[brennser]

mp3 of new weddoes single

[vansmack]

Death Cab For Cutie will release The John Byrd EP on March 1st. The EP, named after their sound technician, will only be available on the Barsuk Records Web site or in record stores who are members of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores.

[ggw]

Originally posted by brennser:
  new Sleater Kinney drops in May 05

Hello everyone.
 
 As many of you know, our new record, The Woods, comes out on May 24th. While there is really nothing we can do to stop people from leaking/downloading promo copies of 'The Woods' on the Internet, we want to say that we don't support this action and we want to address it directly, and hopefully, preemptively.
 
 It seems important for you to know how we feel about it.
 
 The people we are most excited to have hear this record are our friends and you, our fans, the people who have supported us and who are eager to hear our new ideas. We feel as impatient for this new music to get out into the world as we're sure some of you do.
 
 Our latest record is something that we have worked on for a long time. The writing took nearly two years in an effort to challenge and push ourselves. And the recording/mixing itself took six weeks. So much of this new record is a response to the deadening and watering down of music. We wanted to make something that felt wild and alive and that made us excited to wake up in the mornings. There is art work and lyrics and images that we want to share. Ideally, we want to present this record in the way we envision it; as a complete entity, flowing and tangible and within the context that we have created for it. Part of that context is the community that we come from, and this community includes you. And we have some of the best fans: you are smart and critical and outspoken, and we're proud to feel a connection with you.
 
 We know that most people who download indie songs/albums for free find other ways of supporting the bands they love. And we acknowledge that it is a new era and that many people discover music through file sharing. We feel lucky to be a band that has grown organically over the years and we realize that technology has changed the entire process of growth and awareness of music. (We love, for instance, that bootlegs of our live shows are traded on the Internet.) It's scary to imagine that this leak might actually affect our livelihoods, but ultimately this isn't about the fear of people not supporting us financially as indie artists. We don't think of 'The Woods' as some product getting out there early, we think of it as our art and lives and dreams. For us it's about respect and about people supporting us by being aware of our artistic intent. We ask that you please respect our wishes to present this record the way we intended. We're certain that you would want the same for your own endeavors, artistic or otherwise.
 
 So much of what this record is about sacrificing everything to feeling, it's about experience and living and being in the present tense. There will be so many things to experience between now and May 24th; so many other records to sit with and live through, as well as films, books, friends, conversations, etc.
 
 The most honest thing we can say is that it breaks our hearts to think of this being out there early. It actually just feels awful. The release date is 3 months away. We have worked for so long on this record. It's not real for us until May 24th; that is the moment when we get to share this piece of our lives that we are so proud of, to share it with you the way we intended; please wait until then to share it with us.
 
 If you have put this record up on the Internet, please take it down now.
 
 Thank you,
 Corin, Carrie, and Janet
 
 http://www.sleater-kinney.com/021405.html