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45tunes.com says: Wicked cool record!

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Beck

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Beck’s new album Modern Guilt, produced with Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton!

The new album contains 10 new songs, and with the exception of last year’s Grammy-nominated, digital-only single “Timebomb”, Modern Guilt is the first new material Beck has written since the prolific stretch that produced 2005’s platinum Guero and 2006’s universally acclaimed The Information.

Modern Guilt is a tightly assembled group of songs that range in lyrical tone from introspection and social commentary to off the cuff wordplay and lighthearted humor. Musically, the album’s ten tracks vacillate between economy and experimentation, hybrid and pop classicism, while consistently manifesting Beck and Danger Mouse’s shared interest in psych-rock, folk, electronic minimalism and orchestration.

Beck is about to embark on a tour of the UK and Europe, followed by a number of US headline and festival appearances, culminating in Beck’s biggest hometown headline show to date, September 20, 2008 at the Hollywood Bowl.

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Fleet Foxes

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It’s now twenty years since grunge emerged from then culturally isolated Seattle and Fleet Foxes, the eponymous debut album from the city’s latest heroes, demonstrates just how much American independent rock has mutated in that time. The five young members of Fleet Foxes make up a very different sort of rock band, describing their own music as “baroque harmonic pop jams”. Even that understates the depths of the quintet’s effortless vocal harmonies and gently woozy, folky feel. Of their contemporaries only the enigmatic Midlake and My Morning Jacket at their most fragile come close, but neither could have cooked up the Beach Boys spiritual of “White Winter Hymnal” or its more powerful companion piece “Ragged Wood”. In fact Fleet Foxes happily admit to aspiring to an earlier tradition–not just obvious antecedents like the Byrds, the Association, Neil Young and, especially, David Crosby’s famously unfocussed solo album If Only I Could Remember My Name but ancient English folk songs and their later American descendents. All were hunted and gathered from the internet–songwriters Robin Pecknold and Skye Skjelset are barely in their twenties. Add a host of unlikely instruments and the results are stunning, the complete antithesis of mainstream stadium indie that has followed Arcade Fire. Still, the cover features a Bruegel painting of peasants that might have graced any Black Sabbath sleeve. In that way at least Fleet Foxes salute a local tradition. -—Steve Jelbert

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45tunes.com says: Collects all of the Radiohead videos through Hail to the Thief! Rock!

21 videos are featured on the new Radiohead: The Best Of DVD, including Just, Street Spirit, Karma Police, Paranoid Android, No Surprises, Knives Out, Pyramid Song and There There. The DVD also includes the more experimental visuals created for Radiohead songs not released as singles, and nine videos make their DVD release debuts on the new collection.

Tracklisting
1. Creep (directed by Brett Turnbull)
2. Anyone Can Play Guitar (directed by Dwight Clarke)
3. Pop Is Dead (directed by Dwight Clarke)
4. Stop Whispering (directed by Jeff Plansker)
5. My Iron Lung (directed by Brett Turnbull)
6. High and Dry (UK version) (directed by David Mould)
7. High and Dry (US version) (directed by Paul Cunningham)
8. Fake Plastic Trees (directed by Jake Scott)
9. Just (directed by Jamie Thraves)
10. Street Spirit (Fade Out) (directed by Jonathan Glazer)
11. Paranoid Android (directed by Magnus Carlsson)
12. Karma Police (directed by Jonathan Glazer)
13. No Surprises (directed by Grant Gee)
14. Pyramid Song (directed by Shynola)
15. Knives Out (directed by Michel Gondry)
16. I Might Be Wrong (directed by Sophie Muller)
17. Push Pulk / Spinning Plates (directed by Johnny Hardstaff)
18. There There (directed by Chris Hopewell)
19. Go To Sleep (directed by Alex Rutterford)
20. Sit Down Stand Up (directed by Ed Holdsworth)
21. 2+2=5 (Live at Belfort Festival) (directed by Fabien Raymond)

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This acclaimed Kiwi novelty band follow the release of their six-track Grammy Award-winning CD EP “The Distant Future” with their full-length debut. Features fully fleshed-out and professionally recorded versions of the duo’s concerts and TV favorites. Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement’s trademark acoustic guitars lead the blitz, backed by a diverse array of instrumentation and production technique. If amazing, delightful, and hilarious is your idea of funny, then prepare for undisappointment. These fifteen songs pay homage to Pet Shop Boys, censorship, Marvin Gaye, sexism, Shabba Ranks, and backhanded compliments.

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While you wait for the release of the record, check out “Business Time”!

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45tunes.com says: I got this record today and I love it, I am going to make Zooey my honorary imaginary girlfriend for the weekend!

This is the musical debut from M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel, paired together by director Martin Hayens to perform the Richard and Linda Thompson tune “When I Get To The Border” for his film “The Go-Getter”. Their match sparked the idea for “Volume One”. Limited touring this spring.

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A bewitching account of the lures, torments, and rewards of making and performing some of the most interesting music in some of the most iconic indie bands (Galaxie 500, Luna) in recent memory

What do you do if you’re an outsider with a funny accent coming of age in alien bastions of privilege in New York City and Cambridge, Massachusetts? If you’re a certain sort of kid, you front a rock band. And if you’re Dean Wareham, you end up founding a rock band, Galaxie 500, that continues to enjoy what can be called notable postmortem cult success. And then you start a new band, Luna, which enjoys even more spectacular, albeit still “cult” success (which means they don’t play your songs on mainstream radio and you never crack MTV), until, some fifteen years after it began, that band reaches its natural end too. And then you write a book about it all: an unsentimental journey through the great, world-wide indiemusic landscape.

A wickedly honest and unsparing account of a journey through the music world-the artistry and the hustle, the effortless success and the high living as well as the bitter pills and self-inflicted wounds-by a brilliant and fearless participant-observer, Black Postcards is absurdly rich in rewards for anyone who was ever in a band or just took an interest in indie music over the past twenty years-a sort of Kitchen Confidential written by a different species of front man. Black Postcards also captures what has happened, for good and ill, to the entire ecosystem of popular music over this time of radical change, a time when categories like “indie” and “alternative” started to morph beyond all recognition. Rolling Stone called Dean Wareham’s band Luna “the greatest band you’ve never heard of ” and named its album Penthouse one of its 100 greatest rock albums of our time. Black Postcards is also about what it’s like to have to pretend to be civil as you answer the same helpful question over and over again, “Why aren’t you guys more famous?” Why indeed?

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Jane’s Addiction for “Three Days”!

• “Three Days” by Jane’s Addiction at iTunes
• Download “Three Days” from Amazon.com

Actually the entire “Ritual de lo Habitual” album is perfect, I hope you own it! If not, go get it!

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By far Jane’s Addiction’s best album, Ritual De Lo Habitual is chock full of songs that are both catchy and experimental. The singles “Stop” and “Been Caught Stealing” are good examples; “No One’s Leaving” has a nice funk edge with some busy guitar work, and “Ain’t No Right” and “Obvious” are strong as well. The album finishes strongly with “Of Course” and “Classic Girl”. Jane’s Addiction’s funk-punk-rock mix is appealing, and never more so than on this album.

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photo credit: DedHed972

It’s really hard to believe that Jeff’s been gone for almost 11 years … what a great loss … so much potential. Well, at least we’ve got Grace and the other great recordings that he did around that time.
Jeff Buckley

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Five CD box set comprising EPs released around the world at the time of the Grace album & subsequent tour, 2 of these have never been released commercially & are real collector’s items selling for high prices on internet auction sites. They feature alternative versions from the album plus many non-album tracks, live versions & remixes. Mary Guilbert, Jeff’s mother, is providing liner notes, together with contributions from the other 3 band members. There are also rare or unseen photos included on the inner slipcase. 19 tracks - 14 non-album tracks/versions, over 2.5 hours of playing time. The titles are - Live From The Bataclan, the Grace EP (Australian Tour), Last Goodbye (Japanese EP), So Real (Dutch Promo) & Peyote Radio Theatre (Promo). Paper sleeves housed in an elegant slipcase. Columbia. 2002.

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And the original near-perfect record in it’s original form. At many points in this record you’d swear he’s calling for his untimely demise that would unfortunately happen only three years later

Jeff Buckley

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Thoughts/Words/Reviews:
Resembling at times a soft-sung Robert Plant, Buckley was an intuitive vocalist capable of dizzying arabesques and choir-boy sweetness. He is joined here by a tight band for 10 tracks highlighting his stylistic range–Pearl Jam bluesy on “Eternal Life,” impossibly serene on Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” art-school noisy on “So Real,” Led Zep daring on “Mojo Pin.” Unorthodox, this was the debut of ‘94. –Jeff Bateman

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I couldn’t agree more. 1991,92,93 was unbelievable. Maybe my brain is skewed because those were formative end-of-high-school beginning-of-college years for me. Either way … I love a ton of these records.

Here’s his list of “the albums that were either released or broke wide open in 1992″

Absolute Classics I Can Vouch For, The First Several Are Among My All-Time Favorites

• U2 - Achtung Baby
• My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
• REM - Automatic for the People
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magick
• Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
• The Lemonheads - It’s a Shame About Ray
• Beastie Boys - Check Your Head
• Nirvana - Nevermind (duh)
• Faith No More - Angel Dust (me says an underrated masterpiece)
• Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
• Dr. Dre - The Chronic (hells yeah)
• A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
• Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
• Ministry - Psalm 69
• Pixies - Trompe le Monde

Other Good Records I am familiar with

• Stone Temple Pilots - Core (me says, just OK)
• Nine Inch Nails - Broken (whoa)
• Alice in Chains - Dirt
• Pantera - A Vulgar Display of Power
• Singles - Original Soundtrack (kind of sums up this era)
• Living Colour - Time’s Up
• Tool - Opiate
• Cypress Hill - Cypress Hill (to be followed up with Black Sunday in 1993!)
• Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger (to be followed up with Superunknown in 1994!)
• Pearl Jam - Ten (THE album in ‘92, I can vividly remember walking around campus and hearing it blasting out of EVERY fraternity … personally I’ve heard this record enough, I’m kind of done with it)
• Guns N’ Roses - Use Your Illusion I Use Your Illusion II
• Toad the Wet Sprocket - Fear
• Seal - Seal
• Jesus Jones - Doubt

Records from His List That I Am Not So Familiar With

• Del tha Funkee Homosapien - I Wish my Brother George was Here
• Hole - Pretty on the Inside
• Sepultura - Arise
• Fugazi - Steady Diet of Nothing
• House of Pain - House of Pain (Obviously I am aware of the fun anthem “Jump Around”, but I am not familiar wit the album)
• Ice T - O.G. (Original Gangster)
• Mudhoney - Piece of Cake
• Death - Human
• Ice Cube - The Predator
• White Zombie - La Sexorcisto

So go out and get any of these that you don’t have! (at least the ones from the first chunk!)