Now that the year is nearly half over, what are some of your favorite new releases of 2008 so far?
Here are some of mine:
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - "Real Emotional Trash" (Matador) -- I think his post-Pavement stuff just keeps getting better and better!
Various Artists - "Miles From India" (Times Square) -- just got ahold of this one; new sessions put together by the guy who did the Miles Davis Sessions box sets, featuring Miles sidemen jamming with Indian musicians on classic Miles tunes! Inspired by his use of sitars on "On The Corner". Not exactly a new Miles album, but close enough!
Black Mountain - "In The Future" (Jagjaguwar) -- a very impressive neo-heavy-psych record (better than Wooden Shjips for my money.) From Canada.
Black Angels - "Directions To See A Ghost" (Light In The Attic) -- another impressive neo-heavy-psych group from Texas, their second CD is an improvement on their first, and that one was pretty durn good too. (Seeing them live next week!)
Earthling Society - "Beauty & The Beast" (4Zero) -- the 4th by this UK group, and yet another "new direction." A more personal take on the neo-psych vibe, with a more diverse array of instrumentation and songs than is generally the case (as with the two above -- fine as those albums are, all the songs tend to sound samey.) Definitely shades of the 80's UK neo-psych sound in here as well (probably a natural for Cope fans!)
Unio & Petitio - "Cheers Fanx Ta" (self release) -- an unclassifiable dose of English whimsy! Not sure how to describe it (or where to get a copy, except for contacting the group, aka "hedlite" of HH forums fame), but they seem very prolific and lots of new stuff is always appearing at their myspace site.
Boris - "Smile" (Southern Lord) -- one of the most interesting Japanese groups of the day. Named after a Melvins song, but more "experimental" and "bikerish" at the same time. The Japanese version of this CD seems to be quite different from the US version (don't know how it's being released in other markets.)
The Mars Volta - "The Bedlam in Goliath" (Universal) -- I say this every time they put a new record out, but this seems like a particularly good example of their maximalist wankfest. Definitely a "love em or hate em" kind of band.
Die! Die! Die! - "Promises, Promises" (s.a.f.) -- New Zealand group with a neo-post-punk(?) sound. Lots of bands sound like this, but these guys play very well and have a knack for catchy, angular tunes. Maybe they are to The Clean what The Strokes were to "the bowery, NYC 1979"? Plus some Sonic Youth skronkin' too.
Vampire Hands - "Me & You Cherry Red" (Peppermint Coffins) -- kept getting this band confused with "Vampire Weekend" (whom I still have not heard) -- V. Weekend was described to me as twee preppy indie rock with a worldbeat flavor, and V. Hands have a lot of falsetto singing and two drummers, adding to the confusion! Quirky indie rockers from Minneapolis with a certain "psych texture" to their music, in a post-punk way. (Usually bands that are harder to pigeonhole are more interesting ya know!)
Looking forward to:
new Black Moth Super Rainbow? (and it looks like some of the members are also doing solo albums)
new Cornershop??? (Rumoured 2008 release, no date or title yet.)
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