Vol. 3 Issue 16 January 2007
Hello Friends,
Another year is upon us, and yet we here at BRM are still up to our same old tricks, taking the man for all he's worth, Robin Hood style, and helping your favorite bands quit their day jobs one minimum-wage salary at a time. And check it, somehow in the midst of all this moving and shaking, we found time to hit you with a bunch of new blurbs for some of our latest '07 releases, and a killer new podcast. That's how we roll. Check out what our labels are up to this month!
See News Archives
Current Releases
- Click to see:
- Barsuk
- Thrill Jockey
- Caldo Verde
- Absolutely Kosher
Barsuk
www.barsuk.com/
Menomena
"I Am The Fun Blame Monster"
With I Am The Fun Blame Monster, Portland, OR's Menomena staked their claim as one of the most blog-beloved bands in the stratosphere. Pitchfork even lavished the post-post-rock threesome with a rare 8.7 rating. With the band's Barsuk debut, Friend of Foe, Menomena rein in their experimentation for a lavishly produced and extremely accessible collection of sweeping indie-rock ditties. Super-blogger Stereogum already can't stop writing about the record - sure to be one of '07's consensus picks among the kids!
Thrill Jockey
www.thrilljockey.com/
Trans Am
"Sex Change"
With Sex Change (Thrill Jockey), DC instrumental post-everything rockers, Trans Am, have created a scatterbrained masterpiece. Sex Change is an epic love-letter to the 80's - where introspective, keyboard and acoustic guitar-driven soundscapes are tracked neck and neck with stoner-metal mayhem and booty-shaking dance un-hits. "4738 Regrets" seems to have it all - pedal steel, proto-jazz percussion, throbbing New Order synths. Even the cover art can't decide if it's a Can or a Joy Division record. Prophetic.
Caldo Verde
www.caldoverderecords.com/
Sun Kil Moon
"Ghosts of The Great Highway"
We can never get enough of Mark Kozelek's gorgeous weepy vocals and delicate finger-plucked guitar stylings. Here's a previously unreleased Sun Kil Moon bonus track off of Mark's new reissue of Sun Kil's utterly brilliant masterpiece, Ghosts of The Great Highway. This record will change your life.
Absolutely Kosher
www.absolutelykosher.com/
The Affair
"Yes Yes To You"
The Affair take the "hippest band on the January update" award. Vice records apparently discovered these "twee as f&^K" rocking popsters who hail from (where else?) Brooklyn. The band's Absolutely Kosher debut, Yes Yes To You, is packed with influences ranging from Ronnie Spector to Blondie to Heavenly. Girl-fronted nuggets for folks with angular haircuts everywhere! Rock it:
- Click to see:
- Merge
- ATO
- The Leaf Label
Merge
www.mergerecords.com/
David Kilgour
"The Far Now"
David Kilgour might be Merge Records' biggest underdog. His brand new album, The Far Now, continues the allegiance to smart lyricism and grown-up pop songwriting that he practically trademarked in his old band, The Clean. "Wave of Love" sounds like a classic murky Velvets jam - stoned, disconnected, and still sugar-sweet.
ATO
www.atorecords.com/
The Whigs
"Give 'Em All A Big Fat Lip"
Athens, GA's The Whigs are keeping alive the scene that gave birth to Neutral Milk Hotel and REM. Last year, The Whigs were the only unsigned band to get lavished with Rolling Stone's "Band To Watch" status. Now signed to ATO (home of Ben Kweller, and My Morning Jacket), The Whigs' debut, Give 'Em All A Big Fat Lip, is bursting at the seams with retrospective pop melodicism, chunky guitars and yearning impassioned vocals - like Paul Westerberg fronting The Kinks. That awesome.
The Leaf Label
www.theleaflabel.com/
Triosk
"The Headlight Serenade"
Imagine my disappointment in myself: I'm utterly smitten with the completely next-level amazingness of Triosk's The Headlight Serende. I'm not alone. Mojo ranked Serenade in its Top Ten Jazz Records of '06. It's a jawdropping, seamless blend of electronics with traditional jazz elements - all vaguely familiar, but adhering to their own rhythmic and melodic insular logic. Don't be scared, though. There aren't really any long annoying solos. Just gorgeous, moody, rolling piano notes, and ever-mounting tension. A modern classic.
Adrian Klumpes
"Be Still"
Maybe 2007 will be Adrian Klumpes' year after all. Still, you'd be forgiven for thinking: "Adrian…who!?" But really, Klumpes' day job as Triosk's mastermind piano man only revealed half of this Australian's experimental genius. The other half came in the form of his solo record, Be Still. Still is primarily a modern classical record on par with Terry Riley, had Riley traded his organ obsession in for a plain old piano. However, instead of just simply pretty piano-based vignettes, Klumpes completely transforms the instrument altogether. Sweeping, lush piano drones and twinkling pattern-recognized melodies, equal parts epic and sinister, make Be Still the perfect after-hours bookend to The Headlight Serenade.