howdy all….
wow… didn’t expect to have such a short list for you this week. to make up for it, i’ve left the long descriptions in tact so that you can at least waste a few extra minutes reading this. i promise next week’s list will be much longer.
as mentioned last week… due to travel plans and life in general, it looks like we will be needing another part-timer around here. please drop off a resume with your top ten albums of all time, 2012, top ten beers, and uh… something else cool. ya. we’re looking at a start date sometime in early october, so we need resume’s by the end of sept.
also… looks like me/we will be spinning records at the common again on sept 26th. come on down and freakout.
…..pick of the week…..
rangda – formerly extinct – drag city – lp/cd
– rangda is the holy pagan union of sir richard bishop, ben “six organs of admittance” chasny on guitars and chris “thousands of free jazz credits + björk” corsano on drumkit. for the second flight of the shadowy witch-god brothers, rangda have changed their status from false flag to formerly extinct! upon examination, there’s reason beyond their rhyme-free wanderings. since the last album, see, rangda have been all around this world as the wise men and the fools alike in lands both high and low. they’ve seen the young and invest-less kneel amp-side, waiting for musical succor, then in the next town over they’ve felt the cold chill of being left for dead and seen their music dubbed “so wrong it must be rangda” strictly for some local pen-lifter’s personal chuckles. born to the lower-income caste of the bohemian, rangda maul the underbelly for fun and profit. thank kali that all they need is love! these songs, newfangled and shrouded by ancestral awakenings, bore deep into the layers of consciousness to divine meeting. like, dig ‘majnun,’ for instance. everybody always talks about layla, but when does anyone ever pull majnun out the hat? enter rangda with sympathy for the obsessed. to them, the persian wanna-be lover of classical lit and lore is worth more consideration than george harrison’s ex-wife! that’s the way the rangda madness lies.
…..new arrivals…..
calexico – algiers – anti – lp
– now in on vinyl… some 22 years since they first formed, calexico have added yet another successful musical adventure to their list in the way of algiers. You might think that after six studio albums and a suitcase of tour cds, collaborations with the likes of victoria williams, iron & wine, willie nelson, roger mcguinn and nancy sinatra, and soundtrack work to boot, there wasn’t much more they could achieve. but you’d be wrong. the feel of algiers is recognizably classic calexico but their style has been revitalized and reborn by the experience of recording in new orleans. conscious of the clichés that can sometimes afflict acts working in a city with such a strong identity, band members joey burns, john convertino and producer, craig schumacher, chose to avoid the bigger, better known studios in favor of a smaller, more intimate setting. the result of this decision is arguably the most exciting and accessible record calexico have made.
celer – i, anatomy – streamline – lp
– “we made a box of tape loops in the malibu motel, from strings and pianos, and an old reel to reel tape of sinatra. from the top of the cliffs, the view was completely clear, and even in a completely black and starless night, nothing stirred. a few stories, put together with no previous purpose, than having their own place and time. in being put together, something new is formed. this was the basis for i, anatomy. there wasn’t any intention, it was just a diary. these things happened, and became the source material, finding their directions from what was before directionless, and become the whole. going back to these moments and memories, i, anatomy isn’t a story, it’s one hundred stories. the original i, anatomy also included the eps all at once is what eternity is and the die that’s caste, now together in a single edition as they were originally intended, with artwork by christoph heemann.”
field & stream – s/t – field & stream – cs/cd
– the long awaited and long promised full length album from this long running, low output local outfit. “remember lawn chairs and evergreen trees? canoes and fishing poles and coolers of beer? hotdogs that taste of muskol? science fiction novels in the sun? whiskeyjacks eating toast off of your ball cap? robots? field & stream find inspiration from all of these things. Sstretching back to the heyday of intense darkness, minor chords and fuzz – songs: ohia, pedro the lion and the great bonnie prince billy – all the people that music fans have loved for years. field & stream fit this bill. not to be missed.” vinyl some day soon too… supposedly.
old man gloom – no – hydra head – lp
– “old man gloom is a supergroup (containing members of converge, isis, cave in, zozobra, doomriders, mamiffer, etc.), but instead of making shitty records like other ‘supergroups,’ old man gloom actually makes great ones. no is an undeniably great title for an album, and also serves as an ironclad manifesto in opposition to the moral and aesthetic decay of our global society. this is old man gloom’s fifth album, their first in eight years. they weren’t on hiatus, just busy writing the greatest album in music history. that makes them the proud progenitors of the five greatest albums of all time, no being number one. no is like ‘one,’ only spelled backwards and without the ‘e.'”
sic alps – s/t (2012) – drag city – lp/cd
– with the self-titled sic alps album now ready to hit, we’re looking at another fresh dawn in the storied history of a band. but what really is the sic alps story anyway? during pavement’s ‘one more for the money’ tour of 2010, sic alps played some british gigs with them – it’s been written that during one long night in brixton, stephen malkmus was heard uttering within shot of a microphone that sic alps would be one of the most important bands of the next ten years. not that we’re inclined to disagree, but malkmus is a habitual liar, so who knows how apocryphal one can really be about that. sic alps have been around a while, if you think of it – or even if you don’t. 2004 was the start, so we’re on eight years now. they’re often thought of being a bit younger than that, which is alright really – but still, you have to wonder, what’s up with that? ‘sic alps’ is the fifth sic alps album release released since 2006. in the nearly-two-years since napa asylum, sic alps have kept busy with a series of singles, culminating in the tape-stretching double-b side ‘vedley’ and a 7″ ep of tronics covers. sic alps take their show on the road regularly, with visits to europe and many of the american states in the past year. they’ll do it again too – after the release of sic alps.
…..restocks…..
burial – untrue – hyperdub – lp
burial – s/t – hyperdub – lp
gaslight anthem – handwritten – mercury – lp
grizzly bear – yellow house – warp – lp
thanks for listening….
listen records
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edmonton, ab
t5n 1r7
780.732.1132