April 9, 2009

		RECORD STORE DAY: APRIL 18, 2009 Get your calendars out and be sure to mark April 18, 2009 down for the second annual Record Store Day, a day in which record stores all across the country and the people who love them celebrate their uniqueness in the cultural landscape. Last year's event proved wildly popular and those of us who are still standing are back for an even bigger and better day. This year Telepathe, Grizzly Bear, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, the Raveonettes, and Prefuse 73 will be our guest DJs throughout the day, followed by a live performance by Bill Callahan at 9PM, with free beer from 9 to 10PM (with valid ID), courtesy of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Also, many labels and bands are making special releases that will be exclusive to Record Store Day and available to purchase in the shop on that day only (sorry, no web orders), a few of the highlights being records by Sonic Youth, Arthur Russell, Pavement, Iron and Wine, Bob Dylan, and Grizzly Bear, as well as label samplers and giveaways. We'll provide a full run down of the day's events and a list of exclusive releases next week. So circle that date on your calendar and see you a week from this Saturday!

		FEATURED NEW RELEASES Buraka Som Sistema The World's Lousy with Ideas Vol. 8 (LP) Comet Gain PT Walkley Yvonne Fair Bat for Lashes Junior Boys Serge Gainsbourg & Michel Colombier (7") Gainsbourg & Vannier (7") Philippe Nicaud (7") Black Dice Cymbals Eat Guitars Connie Converse O.V. Wright Salem (7") Strange Boys   The Beets Prince Buster Neil Young Don Cherry & Latif Khan The Monks ALSO AVAILABLE Superchunk Telekinesis Doves The Thermals The Hold Steady Richard Swift Recloose I Was a King

		Buy Early Get Now: Sonic Youth "The Eternal" Pre-order Sonic Youth's The Eternal (out on June 9) on CD or LP, and you'll also receive access to an advanced stream of the album (beginning April 28), a limited live LP, exclusive MP3s and a poster. Currently, this Buy Early Get Now offer is for purchases made in person at the store only, but will be available for mail order on April 28th. Questions? Email: orders@othermusic.com

		APR Sun 05 Mon 06 Tues 07 Wed 08 Thurs 09 Fri 10 Sat 11   WIN TICKETS TO LADYTRON & THE FAINT This Friday and Saturday, jet-setting synth-glamsters Ladytron and Omaha dance punks the Faint will be co-headlining at New York City's Webster Hall and Other Music has one pair of tickets to give away to each of the shows. To enter, send an email to tickets@othermusic.com and make sure to list the day you'd like to register for. We'll notify the two winners on Friday morning. FRIDAY, APRIL 10 & SATURDAY, APRIL 11 WEBSTER HALL: 125 East 11th Street NYC

		APR Sun 05 Mon 06 Tues 07 Wed 08 Thurs 09 Fri 10 Sat 11   WIN TICKETS TO THE BROOKYLN PREVIEW OF MUTEK_10 Next month, Mutek with be celebrating its 10th anniversary as one of electronic music's most acclaimed festivals in North America. As always, the Montreal-based event's line-up is spectacular, and the Beyond Booking crew have put together a Mutek preview this Saturday at Brooklyn's Studio B, in hopes of encouraging NYC electronic music enthusiasts to make the trek to Canada for the main event, May 27-31. This weekend's line-up is pretty stellar as well, featuring: Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts (Oslo, Musique Risquée, Circus Company, Mutek | Berlin), Claro Intellecto (Modern Love | Manchester), Andy Stott (Modern Love | Manchester), MLZ (Modern Love, Pendle Coven | Manchester), Pangaea (Hessle Audio, Hot Flush | London), and Ezekiel Honig (Anticipate, Microcosm | Brooklyn). We're giving away two pairs of tickets to this Saturday, and you can throw your name into the hat by emailing enter@othermusic.com. We'll notify the two winners this Friday. SATURDAY, APRIL 11 STUDIO B: 259 Banker Street Greenpoint, Brooklyn

		APR Sun 12 Mon 13 Tues 14 Wed 15 Thurs 16 Fri 17 Sat 18   WIN PASSES TO THE PREMIERE OF WILCO'S NEW DOCUMENTARY: ASHES OF AMERICAN FLAGS This Monday, IFC Center's Movie Night will be hosted by SNL's Fred Armisen who'll present the new Wilco documentary, Ashes of American Flags, followed by a discussion of the film with Armisen and directors/producers Brendan Canty and Christoph Green. The new film follows the Chicago-based group during their 2008 tour, interspersing interviews with band members and day-in-the-life footage as Wilco travels across the U.S., with live performances of more than a dozen songs. Other Music has two pairs of passes to give away to this screening. To enter, email giveaway@othermusic.com. We'll notify the two winners this Friday. MONDAY, APRIL 13 @ 7PM IFC CENTER: 323 Sixth Avenue at West Third Street NYC Pick up your DVD copy of Wilco's Ashes of American Flags at Other Music on Record Store Day, Saturday, April 18. Includes a download for tracks from the DVD as well as an entire bonus concert only available until 4/28.

		$14.99 CD   BURAKA SOM SISTEMA Black Diamond (Fabric) "Luanda Lisboa" feat Znobia "General" Buraka Som Sistema is an authentic ethno-electronic project straight out of Portugal, who, over the course of these 13 burners, plummet us with an onslaught of synth shrieks, polyrhythmic percussion both live and programmed, and a plethora of multicultural vocals. Imagine the danceable yet spastic sound of Justice, Klaxons or Daft Punk but crafted only from equipment found below the equator. That's a good starting point, but here's where things get really interesting. Buraka Som Sistema mix Kuduro (an Angolan born, Lisbon imported music genre) with hip-hop, soca, calypso, and tribal house, and what results is the soundtrack to a much-welcomed global dance party. Like the cross-cultural breeding of Bonde do Role, CSS or M.I.A. (who makes an appearance on "Sound of Kuduro," as does UK grime MC Kano a little while later), Buraka Som Sistema have their pulse set to vibrate both ides of the hemisphere. Every track seems to percolate and bounce with manic energy, style and a constant stride, giving new meaning to the term dirty South! If you're into booty bass from Rio, house music from Africa, Mexican party music, or any such modern incarnation, then this might be what you've been looking for. Enthusiastic somehow seems to be an underwhelming way to describe the energy and fervor that's created here. Tired of rummaging through international reissues? Well, step into the current millennium and be prepared to get your senses tweaked, and you just might sweat a little too. Don't say I didn't warn you. Flying the recommendation flag high this time 'round. Inferno sim! [DG]

		$14.99 LP   VARIOUS ARTISTS The World's Lousy with Ideas Volume 8 (Almost Ready) The eighth installment in the World's Lousy compilation series abandons the 7"-format in favor of the full twelve. Pretty much everyone worth talking about in '09 is on here, as the LP collects exclusive tracks by Blank Dogs, Vivian Girls, Tyvek, Oh Sees, Sic Alps, Times New Viking, Intelligence, Pink Reason and Guinea Worms. I think you already know if you need this or not. Beautiful, silkscreened covers with art by Cassie of the Vivian Girls, as well. The first six volumes are gone, so you'd do well to snap this one up, and check out Volume 7 while you're at it (all-Aussie 45 with Eddy Current Suppression Ring + three more). No brainer of the week. [AK]

		$12.99 CD $9.99 MP3   COMET GAIN Broken Record Prayers (What's Your Rupture?) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store There may not be a better currently-active band in England than Comet Gain, and there may not be any existing pop bands on the planet who are better than Comet Gain, either. The London group's unwavering sense of cool and vulnerable center illustrates the tender, revealing moments of fictionalized young love vs. real life, a passion that connects "kitchen sink" cinema, mod culture, and the Television Personalities into a fully-realized whole, as if the time in between the best parts of their lives never existed. Broken Record Prayers features twenty tracks of Mk. II Comet Gain, post-career crash, post-Velocette, culled from singles released between 1998 and last year. Comet Gain's singles are uniformly superior to its albums, twenty blasts of perfection from all across the indie pop spectrum, moves worked out in the mirror, at home, alone. Someone out there has a full run of Comet Gain's releases; for the rest of us, there's this collection, undoubtedly their strongest and most focused work to date. Intense originals (opener "Jack Nance Hair," written in tribute to the late Mathew Fletcher of Heavenly, is as perfect of a mission statement as any band may have ever recorded) that touch upon everything there is to love about pop music depict an outlet that understands the dual worlds of anger and longing that every misunderstood teenager carries like a cross. Excellent covers of Deena Barnes' Northern Soul classic "If You Ever Walk Out of My Life," the Clean's "Beatnik" and Curtis Mayfield's "Hard Times" should provide excellent points of entry for newcomers and the curious. This band is my Smiths. Maybe they'll become yours, too. [DM]

		$9.99 CD $19.99 LPx2   PT WALKLEY Mr. Macy Wakes Alone (Frisbie) "Why" "Sanitarium" Like a time capsule from a bygone era, Mr. Macy Wakes Alone stumbled into the store a few weeks back, slipping in on a bed of finger-picked acoustic guitar, lush string arrangements and full choral sing-a-longs, quiet brass flourishes, the occasional Theremin and some complicated back story about a shiftless East Village hipster, her hateful record-exec dad, and a downtrodden singer with a day job as a coroner. Suffice to say, in this era of the single, Brooklyn's PT Walkley has delivered a full-blown concept album that owes more than a passing nod to Village Green-era Kinks, and somehow manages to pull it off. Miles of hooks, smart, oddball lyrics and an ungodly dose of ambition are just a few of the tricks up Walkley's sleeve on this surprising and thoroughly enjoyable debut. Walkley is an unknown, but not entirely without experience; he has had success scoring for film, and television advertising (and the band has had some breaks as well -- opening for Coldplay at MSG for instance), and his comfort level with various styles and high-end production is obvious. He works with a top-notch group of producers, arrangers and musicians, but the record has songwriting poise that you can't buy. From sunshine pop to honky-tonk, skiffle to tin-pan alley to three-chord rock and roll, the group effortlessly and convincingly swings through it all, and centered around Walkley's rich but raw singing, remarkably still sounds like a pop band rather than a manufactured studio project. Fans of '60s/'70s orch-pop, take heed, this is your man. [JM] NEW YORKERS: PT Walkley headlines at Southpaw next Friday, April 17, with full orchestra rocking the small stage.

		$14.99 CD   YVONNE FAIR The Bitch Is Black (Reel Music) "Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On" "Tell Me Something Good" It's been a phenomenal week for funk and soul reissues, and this one may just be the roughest diamond in the bunch... and that's nothing but a compliment. This 1975 album is a hallmark of tough-girl, no-BS funk workouts up there with the Betty Davis albums and Labelle's Chameleon LP -- total soul music improved upon by rock 'n' roll production touches, successfully fused with lush orchestrations and sweaty, gritty funk. This album, produced by Norman Whitfield for Motown, has more of a balanced palate than the Davis records, throwing in some heavy, moody ballads amidst the stompers, but her range is impressive and she pulls off both sides with aplomb. Opener "Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On" is a fiery classic, pretty much worth the price of admission alone. Thankfully, things only get better from there -- "It Shoulda Been Me" fuses percolating drum machines with orchestral flourishes and some throat-scorching wails and moans; her excellent cover of Stevie Wonder's "Tell Me Something Good" is a bumping monster that grooves on talkbox guitars, baritone sax burps, and conga drums; and "Walk Out the Door If You Wanna" is so sharp it possibly threatens castration. This record's looong overdue for reissue, and the presentation here is outstanding, remastered from the tapes and featuring a booklet stuffed to the gills with photos and informative liner notes. If you flipped for the Betty Davis and Syreeta reissues we've offered in the past, you most certainly need to hear this -- it takes both of their sounds and successfully fuses them together. Hot damn!! [IQ]

		$14.99 CD   BAT FOR LASHES Two Suns (Astralwerks) "Daniel" "Sleep Alone" Natasha Khan likes to talk about her passion for avant-garde music as well as pop, and on Two Suns, the burgeoning British/Pakistani chanteuse fuses the two with an ease and stark beauty that is on par with many her biggest influences (and fans), artists like Bjork, Radiohead, Kate Bush and Scott Walker, with whom she duets on the chilling set-closer, "The Big Sleep." The album rumbles and purrs with off-kilter bass tones and tribal percussion (courtesy of NYC's own Yeasayer) mixed with cold computer rhythms and soaring orchestration just as often rising out of a bed of sloshing water as a hypnotic synthesizer melody, all bowing in service to Khan's clear and powerful soprano. 2007's Fur & Gold was a bold and beautiful album, but the new one finds Khan really coming into her own, writing all the songs, co-producing, and playing a wide array of instruments, from synths, organ and piano to drum programming and percussion, guitar and many more. No doubt she shows off her immense skills and powerful ambition, but even on a record this dark and unsettling, most of all it sounds like Khan is having fun, with the freedom to explore her talent to its fullest. And particularly on tracks like the Fleetwood Mac-inspired lead single "Daniel," she also lightens up a bit from the theatrics and shows off one of her best skills, unadulterated: a great hook. [JM]

		$13.99 CD $9.99 MP3   JUNIOR BOYS Begone Dull Care (Domino) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store Borrowing its name from a 1949 film short by Norman McLaren, Junior Boys' third full-length, Begone Dull Care, does in many ways parallel the Canadian animator's abstract, skittering visuals -- a minimalist dance between primitive squiggling figures and colorful bursts of paint, set to the tinkerings of Oscar Peterson. Like the film, Junior Boys' electro-pop at first seems deceptively simple, the Ontario duo's skeletal beats and bubbling synths juxtaposed against lots of negative space. Similar to McLaren's animation, the contrast of color and dark is complex and kinetic, and for the Junior Boys, letting a little unexpected brightness break up the stark melancholy of their songs only adds a dimension of humanity that we'd never heard from the duo until now. For one, Jeremy Greenspan's bittersweet melodies are more soulful than before, the singer's hushed falsetto frequently interrupted by full-on crooning. Just wait until you get to the album centerpiece, "Hazel," no doubt one of Junior Boys' most straight-up pop songs to date that finds Greenspan growling over the funky synth pads at one point. It's not that the duo have swallowed a bunch of happy pills; Greenspan's breathy vocals drip with ennui throughout, and tracks like the sexy, pulsing "Parallel Lines" or the Kompakt pop-meets-new romantic "Bits and Pieces" -- with its chorus of "I see you better when the lights are out," complemented by a sax solo -- aren't the kind of songs you associate with sunshine. The difference here is that the flashes of light are all at once warm and mysterious, much like aurora borealis dancing in the chilly northern night sky. [GH]

		$18.99 45 $18.99 45 $18.99 45   SERGE GAINSBOURG & MICHEL COLOMBIER Mister Freedom EP (Vadim Music) "No No, Yes Yes" SERGE GAINSBOURG & JEAN-CLAUDE VANNIER La Horse/L'Alouette (Vadim Music) "La Horse" PHILIPPE NICAUD C'ex/Qu'est Ce Qu'il Dit (Vadim Music) Many OM regulars know that Serge Gainsbourg is my #1, my all-time favorite. I'm an obsessive nutcase about the guy, and I own damn near everything the man ever recorded and wrote for others in some form or another. Imagine my delight when we these rare gems came in -- I freaked out and became instantaneously annoying to my coworkers. Reissued in limited, numbered reproductions of the original sleeves and labels, Universal France lovingly reproduces two outstanding Gainsbourg original soundtrack EPs. The first is his music for William Klein's wonderful 1968 film Mister Freedom (wonderfully reissued on DVD by Criterion recently -- buy it!), an over-the-top postmodern satire of both US-centric global politics and superhero culture... funnier than Watchmen and with better music, too! The music, written by Serge with help from arranger Michel Colombier (who also worked with our man on the classic soundtrack for Anna), features psychedelic mutations on martial music, with boatloads of percussion and drumline workouts along with demented choruses of whistling crimefighters singing about fighting for "Freedom, baby, Wooo!" You also get two organ-led shaggy groovers with growling female gyrations and Colombier's woozy strings. If you dig the sound of Gainsbourg's Initals BB/Comic Strip period, you'll find much to love here. The other Serge 7" is a monster collab between Gainsbourg and Jean-Claude Vannier, recorded for the soundtrack to Pierre Granier-Deferre's 1969 film, La Horse. This one is essentially the missing link, or precursor if you will, to Vannier's work with Gainsbourg and his own L'Enfant Assasin Des Mouches LP -- trippy harpscichords and fuzz guitars swirl around solid bass grooves and strings, with funky breaks holding the whole thing together... until the banjo comes in for the breakdown! So good. Also up for offer is an amazing 7" by Philippe Nicaud, precariously titled "C'Ex," and yes, you can get a pretty good idea of what you're in for here. A booty-breaking conga and bass groove straight out of a NYC mutant disco jam sidles up next to a harpsichord and Hammond organ as a wooly Gallic gorilla grunts the title phrase and variations therewith, and a chorus of female admirers chime in during the breakdown. The flipside "Qu'est-Ce Qu'il Dit?" is even more bizarre, an organ-led slow-burner that pulls apart "Strangers in the Night" like a J-P Massiera jam, rudely overdubbing French come-ons overtop of the English language original... I'm pretty sure I hear some F-bombs being dropped in the mix, too. Jesus. Bottom line, if you have been digging the Jean-Pierre Massiera reissues and need more decadanse freakbeat for your turntable, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better piece of action. And yes, I know these prices are a bit much for 7"s, but look at it this way -- you aren't going to find these things in as good (i.e. new/mint) condition ever again, and especially not at this cost. These records go for twice as much in beat-up shape, and I guarantee you that these reissues will start fetching more money as soon as they are offically out of print -- all Gainsbourg reissue vinyl usually does. The vibrant, pop-art sleeves look fantastic, and the music has never sounded better. These aren't going to last long, so if you want 'em, get 'em now or cry later! Highest recommendation to all decadanse/French pop freaks! Take it from the biggest freak of them all -- you need these. [IQ]

		$13.99 CD $9.99 MP3   BLACK DICE Repo (Paw Tracks) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store It may seem a little strange to suggest this, but Brooklyn trio Black Dice have pretty much flown under the radar over the past few years. After literally slugging their way through hardcore's outskirts in the late 1990s, the band bowed with Beaches and Canyons, a debut full-length that smoothed out their rough edges in favor of a fully ecstatic, lysergic batch of polyrhythmic drones. Since then, though, they've moved steadily away from that sound, embracing jagged electronics as they've evolved into a truly unique experimental electronic outfit. Seeming to get simultaneously more beat-driven and incomprehensibly esoteric with each release, Repo, the band's fifth full-length, finds the group edging itself into a bizarre industrial landscape of its own design. Though undeniably queasier than Load Blown, Black Dice's excellent 2007 effort, Repo still traffics in a lot of the same sounds. Drum machines wander in and out, samples of indeterminate origins are bent, twisted, and repurposed, and vocals are processed and chopped along mutilated guitar and synth blasts. It makes tracks like "Glazin" sound like warped LPs of circus music playing at the wrong speed, while pieces like "La Cucaracha" turn those elements in ecstatic mantras. Better still are moments like "Lazy TV" and "Chicken Shit," both of which gleefully annihilate random vocals snippets and sound effects until only Black Dice's collective fingerprint remains. Ultimately, those who have been following the trio's progression over the past few years will find a lot to love on Repo, as it shows Black Dice taking another confident step forward. [MC]

		$10.99 CD   CYMBALS EAT GUITARS Why There Are Mountains (Self-Released) "And the Hazy Sea" "Living North" In case you forgot to leave the house or check your inbox in the last five years, here's a quick briefing: the nineties are back. "But wait," you say, "didn't those just happen?!?" Well, yeah...kinda. But, hey, don't shoot the messenger! I mean, just last week I read that people are pegging their pants again. Pegging their pants! What's a guy gotta do to stay ahead of the curve these days, tuck in his sweater?! At least I've still got my old Air Jordans in the closet (still a hot sneaker), so that's one less trip to the thrift store, I suppose. Cymbals Eat Guitars may be the musical equivalent of this street fashion continuum. True, the aughts have been no stranger to the nineties thus far in terms of musical reference points/recycling. Already we've seen the resuscitation of bedroom lo-fi (see the Beets review, further down) and drum 'n bass (see dubstep) as viable genres, so it only makes sense that emo would follow. Wait! Where are you going?! No, NOT the piped-in atrocities you hear shopping at Foodtown (insert Wholefoods here if you live in Manhattan) cranked out by Fall-Out Boy's whiny teenage zombie spawn. No, I'm thinking of a very specific strain of strained singer, falling out of J. Mascis' hair and tumbling on down the line through the vocal shrapnel and sickly guitar squall of Archers of Loaf, right on up to Jersey's own reigning kings of chaos, Titus Andronicus. To break it down further, this one sips a lot like a Midwestern vintage, circa '97. I'm sensing some strong Cap 'n Jazz overtones in both the urgent, cracked-vocal delivery and the noodly, Peter Buck in a dogfight with himself, interplay of the guitars. The brooding, dynamic drama of early Cursive seems like an obvious reference point as well, as the band utilize the crescendo to frequent, and great effect. But above all, I think what I'm picking up on is the same urgency and youthful sense of discovery these bands were able to so successfully convey -- the excitement of listening to a group tap into the collective conscious of the moment (fear, hope, uncertainty) and channel it into something productive and new. [JTr]

		$13.99 CD   CONNIE CONVERSE How Sad, How Lovely (Lau derette) "Talkin' Like You (Two Tall Mountains)" "There Is a Vine" Wow. Lau derette issues one of the year's most gorgeous, mysterious archival releases with this wonderful set of home recordings by idiosyncratic folk chanteuse Elizabeth "Connie" Converse. Converse was a NYC resident who recorded these 17 songs, all originals, throughout the 1950s in her Greenwich Village apartment. Heard by but a seldom few, by the early '60s Connie grew despondent, moved to Ann Arbor, MI, wrote goodbye notes to her loved ones, and packed up her Volkswagen and just... disappeared. She hasn't been seen or heard from since, and that same sense of haunting mystery does hover around these recordings. Converse was witty, intelligent, and talented -- these songs, while obviously tied with a certain degree to the Greenwich folk sound, rises above such time stamping. These tunes could easily fit anywhere from Busby Berkeley musicals to slowly shifting Hawaiian beaches; in fact, one of the things I love about this record is the way the melodies do sound almost Hawaiian or tropical at times, while simultaneously evoking a landlocked anxiousness and melancholy, like a Polynesian snowed in at an Appalachian lodge. Silly as it may sound, there's no denying one thing -- we're extremely fortunate to be able to hear these songs, and here's hoping that Converse finds some of the recognition and fanfare that eluded her those years ago. You'd be hard pressed to find a more lovely, intimate, and bewitching album this year. Better late than never. Three cheers to you, Connie, wherever you may be. [IQ]

		$14.99 CD   O.V. WRIGHT Memphis Unlimited (Reel Music) "Are You Going Where I'm Coming From?" "I've Been Searching" The one common denominator of great record producers is their ability to create a flawless, near-perfect backing for the vocalist that they're working with. Willie Mitchell is one such talent, and from his work with Ann Peebles, Syl Johnson, and most notably Al Green, he is regarded as a cornerstone of Southern soul. Along with the aforementioned, Mitchell is also behind this "lost gem" from 1973 by O.V. Wright. Much like Al Green, Wright rode the line between gospel and soul with a gritty, natural and emotional style. Similar to the classics released by Mitchell's own Hi Records, Memphis Unlimited has all the same elements that attracted the likes of the Rolling Stones, Otis Redding, and Aretha Franklin to cover his songs. Wright's voice is, however, huskier and fuller than Green's; never floating off into the flight of spine tingling falsetto, he comes across as a struggling man, grounded and earthbound yet prideful and powerful. The arrangements fully utilize the same talents of the Memphis Horns and the Hi Rhythm Section whose drumming backbeat made Mitchell's sound so sought after, successful and sampled through the decades. From the slow and steady, head nodding soul ballads, to exercises in early funky breakbeat, Mitchell and Wright created dark and warm songs, with a tight grip pulling hard on the heart. Memphis Unlimited is one of the best soul reissues I've heard in a while; not only because it possesses all of the best elements of Mitchell and Green's better known collaborations but, more importantly, for the reason that Wright is a talented singer who knows his way around a soul song like very few others. [DG]

		$6.99 45   SALEM Water EP (Merok) "Whenusleep" UK's Merok imprint brings us the follow-up to Salem's now sold-out and sought after Yes I Smoke Crack EP. And while the Michigan trio has been practicing music independently for the past several years, this single is solid evidence that the whole is better than the sum of its parts. With the Knife as an obvious touchstone and numerous allusions to dubstep, Salem's innovative and truly unique sound is owed to the band's use of chopped-and-screwed melodies partnered with hypnotizing drum machine beats and eerie vocals that possess an almost otherworldly aura. Salem create music that is difficult to classify -- it's neither darkwave nor standard electronic/pop music, but exists in a grey area in between. Both captivating and unsettling, constantly enticing the listener, we're sure we'll be hearing much more from this group. A band to watch. [PG]

		$13.99 CD   STRANGE BOYS And Girls Club (In the Red) "Woe Is You and Me" "Heard You Wan to Beat Me Up" Austin's Strange Boys have been knocking around for a few years now, a duo first that gradually expanded to the modest and oh-so-spare quartet responsible for ...And Girls Club, the group's debut LP for the In the Red label. Though they blare comfortably alongside a lot of today's best garage punks, this young crew isn't necessarily drawing from the same well of grungy, grimy, low-down rock. Instead, they shoot for a pre-psychedelic R&B, almost like some lost Nuggets-era jammers with more of an affinity for the blues than anything else. Tracks like "Should Have Shot Paul" easily establish what these guys are going after, both in sound and overall sentiment -- reverb-coated guitars intertwine, allowing Ryan Sambol's nasally voice enough space to croon about which Beatle he would have preferred to see assassinated. Later tracks work the same trick, as songs like "Heard You Want to Beat Me Up" and "Probation Blues" find the band locking in on some great hooks and loose carefree rhythms. Raucous all throughout and still a little understated in parts, this promising group's debut seems especially suited to those in search of some brave souls to take up the Black Lips' mantle. [MC]

		$13.99 LP   THE BEETS Spit in the Face of People Who Don't Want to Be Cool (Captured Tracks) Man, things are worse than I thought. You know it's gotten really bad when bands are being priced out of Brooklyn, left with no option but for retreat into the wilds of Queens in order to find affordable rent. Wait, I'm hearing that the Beets may actually be FROM Queens. As in, their parents lived there, so they did too -- maybe still under the same roof in some cases. While I can't confirm whether these Beets have left the hive yet, it seems to matter less and less the more I listen to this new LP. The lo-fi, echo-drenched aesthetic has become something of a go-to lately, and parallels can be drawn to current local jangle-darlings Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls, and Cause Co-motion. However, the Beets are cutting an even cruder path through the brush, using similar tools, but winding up a mile or two down the road from where the rest of the party ended up, triumphantly emerging with tattered, beer-soaked map in hand. That is to say, there's a certain naive, unrefined charm here that buys them a lot of time and credit. While we're certainly not lacking for bands playing a slopped-out garage-folk hand these days, there's a refreshing sense of purity and, more importantly, real joy and FUN here, that effectively insulates it from any attempts at hating. If this kind of thing had even the slightest whiff of irony or calculation the spell would be broken, and you'd be beside yourself with anger and disgust. Instead, the Beets carry it off in the same way the Television Personalities or the Pastels turned a shambling racket into something lovable and endearing, creating one of the more inspired messes I've heard in a great while. Make a joyful noise. [JTr]

		$14.99 CD   PRINCE BUSTER Sings Ten Commandments (Reel Music) "Ten Commandments" "Girl, Answer to Your Name" Ah, so nice to see one of my favorite reggae soul albums finally available on CD! Prince Buster's classic 1967 compilation Ten Commandments, originally released in the States on RCA Victor, gets a beautiful remaster and reissue treatment with a thick booklet of photos and liner notes by reggae historian Roger Steffens. Buster is generally regarded as one of the founders and forefathers of the ska sound, and his early Blue Beat sides are raw, raucous rallying cries that still rock a party today; on Ten Commandments, his sound is augmented by a heavier soul/R'n'B influence with rousing success. The opening title track is a humorous, rather misogynistic diatribe which gets its just deserts in the record's second half, when a woman known only as "Princess Buster" responds with her "Ten Commandments from Woman to Man," where she gets the last word and even tells him to shut up when he tries to chime in with interjections! The rest of the album is as equally entertaining and heavily grooving, with tracks like "Ain't That Saying a Lot," "I Won't Let You Cry" and "Girl, Answer to Your Name" skanking in fine rocksteady style; he even drops some lovely, melancholy slow jams in "Here Comes the Bride." It's also great to hear him in such clear fidelity while holding on to the raw "authenticity" of the classic Jamaican sound. Any fan of classic '60s reggae needs to pick this up post-haste, it's long overdue for rediscovery and a most welcome, essential addition to the racks (and the collections) once again. [IQ]

		$17.99 CD $21.99 CD w/DVD   NEIL YOUNG Fork in the Road (Reprise) "When Worlds Collide" "Johnny Magic" Shakey has become somewhat of the resident blogger of classic rock; rather than crafting carefully managed "comeback" albums every five or ten years with polished "versions" of his vintage sound, he seems to write and release albums almost on a whim, usually commenting on current events while they are still alarmingly current. So it's no surprise that Fork in the Road -- a loving and angry tribute to classic car culture, his beloved Linc-volt eco-fuel project, and hardworking Detroit -- should drop in the midst of a kazillion-dollar auto-industry bailout, chock full of whip-smart as well as patently absurd thoughts on the whole mess we're in. He never wanted to be a pop star, this ain't pop music, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Roll on, Neil, roll on. [JM]

		$21.99 CD $9.99 MP3   DON CHERY & LATIF KHAN Music Sangam (Heavenly Sweetness) "Air Mail" "Sangam" This is a hugely underrated album in the Don Cherry discography, and one of his most successful attempts ever at reaching an east/west fusion. Don't let that last word put you off, this is really some higher level music, impossible to pin down stylistically, and more relevant that ever. Indian tabla player Latif Khan provides the rhythmic background with cyclic beats, as Cherry improvises on an array of African and Asian string and wind instruments, as well as wordlessly vocalizing over the least offensive keyboards I've ever heard on what is ostensibly supposed to be a jazz record. Actually, Cherry was pretty far beyond jazz at this point, his achievement comparable in a way to how Arthur Russell genetically modified the DNA of disco. Brilliantly produced and an excellent headphone listen, full of ghostly harmonies, sparse melodies, endlessly loping rhythms, and some extremely genius improvising. [MK]

		Black Monk Time $17.99 CD $9.99 MP3 Early Years 1964-1965 $17.99 CD $9.99 MP3   THE MONKS Black Monk Time w/ Bonus Tracks (Light in the Attic) Preview Songs on Other Music's Download Store In all my years of working on the floor at Other Music, I've probably heard Black Monk Time spun on the shop's stereo more than any other record. I've also read dozens of essays on the Monks and their biography, as well as listening to many customers asserting that they were the "first punk band," the "first post-punk band," "Dadaist bubblegum pop," "modal jazz, not rock-n-roll," and "better than the Velvet Underground, Beatles, Stones and God." With only a quick a Google search you can find numerous accounts documenting the amazing story of this group, but here's a quick summary: In 1964, five American GIs stationed in Germany formed a beat band. After their stint in the military ended, they stayed in that country, donned monastic threads and haircuts, and released one sexy, distortion-drenched cave-stomp of a record that predated the reductionist, amphetamine-fueled Raw Power, Kick Out the Jams and WhiteLight/White Heat by a good three-or-so years. But garnering only a small bit of fame in Germany and with nary a US release or contract in sight, they broke up two-and-a-half years later. The remarkable thing about Black Monk Time is, well...everything! The Monks delivered a primitive one-two percussive stomp, accented by fuzzed-out basslines that were most of their songs' only melodies. The lead guitar was there only to deliver heavily distorted shreds of noise while two rhythm guitars -- one actually supplied by an over-amplified banjo -- and ghostly organ passages pushed these tunes forward like a freight train. And then there are the vocals! Singer/guitarist Gary Burger yelps and squeals about "hating you with a passion," "Pussy Galore comin' down" and Viet Cong killings, all with a crazy intensity not typical of the era. But this ain't heavy...this is good time, high five-ing rock-n-roll of the highest order. For the past 44 years, Black Monk Time has only gained more and more acclaim and continues to subversively influence modern music. Even after all these years of hearing these tunes blaring from the shop stereo, it's still an astounding listen. [DH] Also available, The Early Years, a collection of Monks demos -- a great document of the musical evolution of one of rock-n-roll's most important bands.

		$7.99 CD $4.99 MP3   SUPERCHUNK Leaves in the Gutter EP (Merge) "Learned to Surf" I guess we can't really blame Superchunk for taking eight years to release a new record (and a four-song EP at that, with one track from a previously released 45). What with Mac and Laura running one of the best indie labels in the world, what with little ones to look after at home, what with Portastatic and all that... hell, we're all busy, but we can't blame them because they blow it all away. Time seems to disappear with the first notes of "Learned to Surf" from Leaves in the Gutter, a little record that will make you remember why this band was once the most important thing in indie rock. They may be old, but they can still rock your tired ass.

		$13.99 CD $9.99 MP3   TELEKINESIS Telekinesis! (Merge) "Look to the East" Michael Benjamin Lerner is a drummer with ambition, a one-man-band who crafts better pop songs than most seasoned fab fours. This Merge debut is pure joy, rollicking, rocking fun, and fans of anything from the Shins to Cheap Trick will not be disappointed.

		$14.99 CD   DOVES Kingdom of Rust (Astralwerks) "Kingdom of Rust" "The Outsiders" Doves fourth full-length finds the U.K. mainstay in excellent form, with a record chock full of all they are best known for, yet somehow even better. The group has always built haunting pop songs from strummed acoustic and chiming electric guitars, backed by pulsing metronomic rhythms, and fronted by Jimi Goodwin's dark tales of emotional pain, and on Kindom of Rust they deliver a great batch of new songs with all the hooks and all the heartache.

		$14.99 CD $9.99 MP3   THE THERMALS Now We Can See (Kill Rock Stars) "I Let It Go" "How We Fade" Portland's endlessly enjoyable punk proselytizers Thermals tend to choose pretty dark themes for the albums, and this excellent new one is haunted by the specter of death, lost love ones, failed ambitions and sickness. So why, pray tell, is this music so life-affirming?

		$15.99 CD w/DVD   THE HOLD STEADY A Positive Rage (Vagrant) This hour-long tour doc and live album shows Hold Steady at a creative and popular peak, riding their first real international success, touring behind 2006's killer Boys and Girls in America. Sweaty rock and roll was made for the stage, and these doughy nerds can make you pump a fist like few indie rock bands ever could. CD features 17 tracks from the band's Halloween 2007 Chicago show, plus a few bonus cuts of more recent and unreleased numbers.

		$14.99 CD $14.99 LP w/MP3 $9.99 MP3   RICHARD SWIFT The Atlantic Ocean (Secretly Canadian) "The First Time" "The Original Thought" Richard Swift has a way of melding synth-heavy orchestral bedroom pop that sounds absolutely nothing like anything else. On Swift's newest full-length, his growling, soulful melodies are reinforced by ragtime piano and swells of synthesizer horns, a record as informed by pop as it is by funk. The Atlantic Ocean is fittingly self-described as "Prince sitting in on John Lennon's Plastic Ono sessions."

		$17.99 CD   RECLOOSE Perfect Timing (Sonar Kollektiv) Formerly a Detroit mainstay associated with Planet E and Innerzone Orchestra, Matthew Chicoine now resides in New Zealand, but his breezy techno still packs a dancefloor, and this funky, jazzy album of synth and horn-filled grooves is big fun in any hemisphere.

		$13.99 CD   I WAS A KING I Was a King (TCG) "Golden Years" Norwegian bubble-gum popsters I Was a King have delivered an utterly charming, fuzzed-out Teenage Fanclub homage that hits both the high harmonies and the truly warped guitar histrionics even harder than their idols, and the results are thoroughly enjoyable popsike that both rocks and swoons.

		PHONE ORDERS Phone orders are accepted at (212) 477-8150 (ext. #2, mailorder) Mon-Fri, Noon - 7pm EST EMAIL For general inquiries or other information please email sales@othermusic.com. Do not reply to this message. REMOVE This is an automated list. If you would like to be removed for any reason, please visit: digital.othermusic.com/subscribe.php   THIS WEEK'S CONTRIBUTORS [MC] Michael Crumsho [PG] Pamela Garavano-Coolbaugh [DG] Daniel Givens [GH] Gerald Hammill [DH] Duane Harriott [IQ] Mikey IQ Jones [MK] Michael Klausman [AK] Andreas Knutsen [JM] Josh Madell [DM] Doug Mosurock [JTr] Jonathan Treneff THANKS FOR READING - all of us at Other Music

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