Audioholic Media

»Album Reviews For Release Date: 06.23.09
by Joshua Krage

I’m gonna go generic this week, on account of I never do. Here’s a list of music artists with new albums being released on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009. The artists in color with links are of particular merit and quality. Generic enough for ya? ON we go:

Alexisonfire

Amazing Baby, Rewild – hyper-blogged groove unit from (of course) Brooklyn who’s nary over a year old, sewing up the psychedelic reverb, retro-colored synth waves, and spare mirror-ball strings to take the MGMT route to buzzworthy status. It’s classic Bowie in the disco age for these guys, and it makes for some rather danceable fare. Currently touring with Phoenix, just to give you the further flavor.

Bibio
Bjork – live

Jay Brannan, In Living Cover – organic, unpretentious NY independent singer-songwriter who claims to sound like “The Little Mermaid on crack,” but in actuality sounds quite melancholy mellow. This is a decent, low-key covers album (bookended by two originals), mostly just acoustic piano or guitar and Brannan’s unadorned, Jose Gonzalez-style tenor. Great for a mellow interlude to your week.

Tom Brosseau, Posthumous Success – a subtle, subdued folk artist with some avant-garde tendencies and a style that’s a peculiar shade of teal, but turned up with a more full-band sound on this LP, out on FatCat Records.

Chali 2na
Richard Cheese – live (Viva la Vodka!)
Shawn Colvin – live
The Dear Hunter
Marie Digby
Dinosaur Jr.
Dream Theater

Foreign Born, Person to Person – solid, sunny and slightly psychedelic pop/rock out of sunny California, as told through the lens of a wobbly Brit-influenced yowling tenor courtesy of frontman Matt Popieluch. Uplifting through and through, with a few shades of dream thrown in for atmosphere.

Future of the Left

God Help the Girl, God Help the Girl – side project from Belle & Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch, which is really an album played by B&S and sung by some fine female vocalists.

He Is Legend
The Higher
Patterson Hood – lead Drive-By Trucker goes on another solo outing
Jets Overhead
Lemonheads
Lil’ Wayne – will the long-awaited “Weezy-Rock” album finally see the light of day? Will tha Carter play all the licks live? Will there be any tracks NOT featuring Auto-Tune now that Jay-Z officially killed it?
Love is All
Bob Marley – “B is for Bob” best-of
The Mars Volta
Maylene and the Sons of Disaster

Eugene McGuinness, Eugene McGuinness – quite a spunky slice of Brit punk/pop with a nice combo of mod style and rocker reverb and a healthy infusion of Kinks sensibility.

Tift Merritt – live
Alexi Murdoch – Away We Go OST
Andy Narell
OST – Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
R.E.M. – Reckoning Deluxe Edition, with the “Deluxe” being a live disc containing a barn-burning 1984 concert from Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom
Royal City.

Regina Spektor, Far – wide-eyed ivory-tinkling songstress showcases her sober songwriting side on this third LP, coming across much more serious but still playful when possible, and rolling her work around to encompass an enviable list of producers like Jeff Lynne, Mike Elizondo and Jacknife Lee. The music’s great and a great step forward and all, but what really grabs me is that album cover – so simple and innocent!

Spinnerette – solo project from The Distillers’ Brody Dalle

Sunset Rubdown, Dragonslayer – more distilled genius from Canadian indie-rock superman Spencer Krug’s horizon-spanning side-project (assuming that Wolf Parade is his main band, and not the 3 others he jockeys in his “spare” time). Persistently ambitious high-concept rock and roll with enough production flourishes to color a post-rock album, Krug runs on all cylinders and turns in some of his best and most high-octane songs for this LP, which is not to be missed by anyone wishing to retain their hipster cred.

Tortoise, Beacons of Ancestorship – still gloriously alive after their many years of instrumentally-lush, mainstream-avoidant post-rock instrumental grandeur. Their genre is a pretty narrow niche, but for disciples of musically adventurous and educated composition, there is no better band currently recording, and these elite musical scientists retain their crown easily.

Walter Trout
Voivod
Pete Yorn

That’s a healthy slice of musique nouveau for you. Stay tuned next week, though — we’ll have another solid contender for album of the year when the light of day finds… Wilco (The Album)! [cue dramatic interlude music]. Until then, stay frosty, and this means you Californians.

P.S. Were any of you watching The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien last Tuesday, June 16th? If so you may have noticed my 15 seconds of fame. Somebody get me a Scooby Snack — ZOINKS!

P.P.S. Enjoy a sampling from this week’s new songs on my MySpace page. It’s updated pretty much weekly now…

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