August 28 Notable Releases

A few of the 2,565 new and re-released coming out this week.

Ben Harper -- Lifeline. Friend to surfers, Obama and Lynchian muses -- Big Ben gives you another batch of rootsy rock via his crazy fretless guitar.

The Scorpions -- Humanity Hour 1. A new album from the German rockists who are entering their 35th year of rocking you like a hurricane. This one features Billy Corgan on a track -- pretty nice of the Krauts to give him a shot at making a comeback.

Turbonegro -- Retox. Norwegian metal's answer to ICP would like to invite you to their pain cave... TO BLUDGEON YOU!!!! They also once released an album named Ass Cobra... that seems worth pointing out.

VHS or Beta -- Bring on the Comets. The cover for the Kentucky trio's latest release does not feature Shannon Tweed, no matter how hard your squint.

Do you think "Who's Johnny?" Was Written On This?


I'm considering purchasing it and donating it as the first piece in the new recordreviews.org wing of the Smithsonian.

We have to protect our heritage people... WE HAVE TOO!!!!

August 21 Notable Releases

Rilo Keily -- Under the Blacklight. Jenny Lewis puts away the twins and the rabbit fur coat and gets back to her responsible rocking roots.

The New Pornographers -- Challengers. New album of pop powered by the Canadian collective.

MIA -- Kala. MIA's first album put Ceylonese hip hop on every hipsters lips. Of course Ceylon's been Sri Lanka since '72 -- but be gentle, the girl jeans and grade school t-shirts have reduced circulation to their brains.

R. Kelly -- Trapped in the Closet: Chapters 13-22. While not technically an album -- 13-22 does represent the next installment of the most important work of our time. Seriously, I think there's about a hundred grad theses in this thing.

"During the the last dying gasps of the behemoth music corporations of the twentieth century, one such company allowed a singer best known for his belief in the power of flight and his penchant for urinating on underage girls to create an operatic melodrama more surrealistic than even anything on Telemundo."

There you go American Studies students, I wrote your introduction. You're WELCOME!

Rob Zombie and Various Artists -- Halloween. The success of his films House of a Thousand Corpses and The Devil's Rejects gave Zombie the chance to re-imagine John Carpenter's 1978 horror classic (some how he didn't feel the need to cast an actor to play a young Freddie Harris in the roll made famous by Busta Rhymes in 2002's Halloween: Resurrection, curious...). The soundtrack takes a similar tact in that along with '70's hard rock classics it contains "re-imagined" covers of hard rock favs like "Enter Sandman" and arguably Carpenter's greatest artistic achievement, "The Theme to Halloween".

August 14 Notable Releases

A few of the 1,410 new and re-released albums coming out this week.

The Cast of High School the Musical 2 -- High School Musical 2. The inevitable follow up to the best selling album of 2006. That right music business your key target is now people too young to figure out how to steal music but old enough to get their parents to buy them a CD. Additionally the parents feel guilty stealing something on behalf of their kids, if not for themselves. That's all ya' got left... nice business model.

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds -- Live at Radio City Music Hall. Peabs just called from 1997 and said he's really excited about this CD... I didn't have the heart to tell him that in the future, he will not give a fuck.

A Preview of Our Up Coming Sort of Late Lolla Coverage

Grambo already posted this, but I have no problem saying that my main man Dirty has made the greatest film in the history of cinema. Look for him on Inside the Actor's Studio next week discussing Grizz's primary motivations in the BLAAAHHH scene.

True/false, Dirty's movie will be bigger than Chocolate Rain?

Obvs, TRUE

August 7 Notable Releases

Flight of the Conchords -- The Distant Future. EP preview of the October album from the band/HBO show of the same name. Ten years after Tenacious D had their show on HBO, how can two Kiwi's recycle the exact same premises (both have a single obsessed fan, one member is constantly quiting and rejoining the band, big egos/tiny apartment, no real gigs, etc.) and somehow it's still funny and I still like it? It's sort of like the Office in reverse, if the American Office took place in like Southampton -- that's all I got.

Fuel -- Angels and Devils. Fuel has a new album... surprisingly they also have a greatest hits album... yeah, I got nothing.

Billie Holiday -- Remixed & Reimagined. At one time the record companies fought tooth and nail to prevent stuff like this -- suing not just for royalties, but in some cases to prevent the release of material with samples. Now the electronica remix of classic jazz and pop has become it's own odd little genre with releases from Verve, Motown, Blue Note and the mega-majors like Sony who are trying to figure out any way to make money off the back catalogs they've already sold us several times over on different media.