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Free Song Download of "The End Is Near," taken off of the Fiery Furnaces' new full-length, I'm Going Away, out this Tuesday, July 21 on Thrill Jockey. From ambitious, experimental concept records to collaborating with their grandmother, brother/sister duo Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger always keep us guessing with every release. Perhaps most surprising is just how direct and catchy their latest set of tunes is, a perfect blend of off-kilter indie rock and piano-driven classic rock, with Sebadoh's Jason Lowenstein once again joining them on bass and sitting behind the mixing console. This Week's Featured Downloads
You won't find a better album title this year, folks. Apparently it's what the lifelong East Detroit resident shouted out during a tour of Europe, frustrated with the same French bread and cheese platters that he was constantly being served backstage at his gigs -- you can't make this stuff up! Nathaniel Mayer is one of those semi-legendary Motor City soul singers and his releases from the sixties made him a local legend, his music later serving as a major influence on Detroit-based artists like the Black Keys, Dirtbombs and recent Stones Throw signing Mayer Hawthorne. Though Mayer had a top 40 hit in '62 with the classic "Village of Love," for many deep soul aficionados you can't talk about the singer without mentioning his brilliant 1966 single, "(I Want) Love and Affection (Not the House of Correction)," an uptempo stomper that showcased his hard, bluesy tenor. Mayer pretty much disappeared from the public eye for more than 30 years and many fans assumed that he had died, but in 2004 he resurfaced again, encouraged by the local Detroit artists who were championing his music. Back in the spotlight, the singer would tour the states and performed some club dates in Europe, yet sadly he passed away following the release of 2007's Why Don't You Give It To Me? This album at hand, Why Won't You Let Me Be Black?, comes from the same two-day recording session as its predecessor, featuring the musical support of members of the Black Keys, Dirtbombs and Outrageous Cherry. In his later years, Mayer's clear-throated tenor had become a gruff, raspy howl, but the echoey, garage-rock backing from his all-star band is a perfect fit. Tracks like "Mr. Tax Man," "She's Bad" and "The Puddle" are smoky, electric blues burners that conjure ghosts of Electric Mud, while "What Would You Do" and "You Are the One" are intimate acoustic performances culled from a 2007 radio interview. For those who like their R&B and soul served up raw, pathos-tinged and slightly unhinged, step right up! -Duane Harriott
The best installment in this single series so far finds Burnside Project main man Richard Jankovich (a/k/a Pocket) collaborating with the Church's Steve Kilbey on the title track. Kilbey's vocal melody recalls classics like "Under the Milky Way" and "Metropolis" with Pocket weaving a dreamy web of chiming guitars and electro-pop beneath. Kompakt Records staple Justus Kohncke steers the song in a more Dare-era Human League direction with his remix while Real Life's George Pappas (a/k/a Alien Skin) re-imagines the track as moody ambient pop, with a gauzy bed of slow-swelling synths cradling the melody. Other highlights include a dancefloor-ready, electro-disco take on the title track from Peter Flowers and the B-side, "Break Your Heart Wildly," which features Lilofee vocalist (and John Tejada collaborator) Kimi Recor. -Josh Madell
Julianna Barwick's Sanguine CD was a favorite here in the shop when it came out in late 2007, and I haven't heard anything quite like it before or since, a hallucinogenic journey of loopy electronics and hazy reverbed vocal acrobatics. I've been extremely excited to check out new work from such a talented local artist, and with Florine, I'm anything but disappointed. While Sanguine featured thirteen songs over the course of about 25 minutes, the new EP clocks in at roughly the same time with only six tracks; this means that those morsels of sonic sculpture have evolved into four- and five-minute orchestrations. Using samplers and loops, Barwick constructs vocal cathedrals of hypnotic and enchanting sounds. Yes, the comparisons to Panda Bear are still valid, particularly on the tracks with live instrumentation, but that comparison is not a bad thing, just a leaping-off point for this highly original performer. Barwick's work takes on a textural intensity where the layers grow so architecturally integrated that it reminds me of the vocal equivalent of Phillip Jeck's work on Touch records. Okay, maybe I'm getting carried away, but you will too when you play Florine. -Brian Cassidy
We tend to give reggae's digital era short shrift around here, but maybe it's time to take the blinders off as the charms of King Kong's 1986 masterpiece, Trouble Again, are simply undeniable. In a perfect world this LP would be blasting at every rooftop party you make it to this summer; there's just hit after hit here, with none of the monotony that dancehall can occasionally get mired in -- super crisp beats and production from King Jammy and his rhythm masters Steely and Cleevie, with King Kong's delivery just flowing beautifully, tough and pliant in equal measure. Seriously, just take a moment to jam the driving "More Insane" or his wicked and buoyant "Follow Me," which scrambles the A.M. radio classic "In the Summertime" into an old-school dancehall classic. Killer stuff, just take a look at this dude on the cover and you'll know you need this!!! -Michael Klausman
I 'll say, I'm usually familiar with (and a big fan of) much of the LTM's reissue catalogue; it remains one of my favorite labels and continues to rescue from obscurity some of my favorite releases on many of my favorite labels of the (post)punk era, not to mention their countlessly brilliant Dada/Surrealist/Satie reissues via their Salon imprint. I was, however, completely ignorant of this release by the Noyes Brothers, founders of the band Spherical Objects (whom I know) and of the Object Music label. It's great, intense stuff -- a reissue of a 2LP set originally limited to 1000 copies and running for precisely 100 minutes, this is somewhere between minimal wave and the works of early Cabaret Voltaire, mixing guitar with heavy synth, sputtering drum machines and minimal percussives, and that same cold, jarring Cabs-style vocal delivery. Where the Cabs spooned in a heavy dose of dread and darkness, this takes more of a playful turn, with occasional psychedelic garage-rock (think Nuggets) tendencies, stabs at BBC Radiophonic Workshop-esque experiments, and more overt melodies. It's a record whose surface is initially uninviting, but as the music develops and the songs unfold, you get sucked in and won over by disc's end. This is definitely the most eclectic release of its kind that I've heard in a long time -- from disc one's catchy electro-pop tunes and 26-minute sound collage (playfully titled "It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time") to disc two's more acoustic dreamy sounds (complete with female vox) and echo chamber experiments, this is definitely recommended. Psychedelic cold wave? Yes, please! This one's a winner. -Mikey IQ Jones
Though the highly respected Soul Fire label released their final 45 in 2005, the influential dirty-funk revivalist sound that they championed during their short four-year existence successfully lives on through colleagues like the Dap-Kings and El Michels Affair. This 32-track compilation culls together the limited edition, vinyl-only singles that the label put out between 2001 and 2005. The imprint was born out of label head Phillip Lehman's love of the gritty, raw R&B/funk sound of the vintage 45s that he collected. The new, original productions that Soul Fire released were all stanky, greasy affairs, stylistically ranging from the poly-rhythmic Afro-funk glide of Massak's "B.L.A. Pt. 1" to the inspired southern soul of the great Lee Fields. This mostly instrumental collection also contains a bunch of exclusive tunes that never made it to vinyl and honestly, there isn't a dud to be found. It's a fitting tribute to a fantastic label that never got its due during its time, but the current success of the aforementioned artists proves that a great idea is always a great idea, and that heat will always rise to the top. -Duane Harriott
California is the coolest! First Thee Oh Sees ripper of an album on In the Red and then the amazing Eat Skull LP on Siltbreeze, and now the debut by Fresh & Onlys. A totally irresistible mix and a veritable hit parade of sun-bleached garage pop belters, skewed DIY psych punk, and even a few twee C-86 moments. So yeah, the best of all worlds, really. Kinda like seeing the Pastels, the Creation, and Thee Oh Sees all in the same night. We should be so lucky to have bands like this in New York. -Andreas Knutsen
Adopting the title that Sterns Africa has applied to their three recent Super Rail Band reissues, Syllart has struck gold with these two discs of prime cuts from Senegalese nightclub kings Orchestra Baobab. Just as much an institutional creation as the Rail Band, Baobab was cobbled together by a clutch of government ministers, drawing on various ethnicities and nationalities, to serve as a reflection of an enlightened, modern nation. And if Rail had a peer in terms of popularity, ability, and sheer size, it was Baobab. Fifteen members strong, the group fused the Latin rhythms of rumba, son, and soukous with Wolof, Mandingo, and Toucouleur griot vocal styles, and featured hugely creative and innovative players like the Togolese Barthelemy Attisso on guitar and Malian Issa Cissoko on sax. La Belle Epoque is bookended by great recordings from 1971 and 1977, with the first disc consisting of blistering live recordings from the Club Baobab in '71. It's an unmitigated thrill to hear the band live in the club where they cut their teeth and that gave them their name, playing to the Dakar jet-set that adored them. The second disc reissues material originally released on two 1978 Baobab a Paris LPs. Produced in 1977 by Ibrahim Sylla for his Abou Ledoux label, the deftly, delicately engineered sessions were the first Baobab had made outside of the Dakar studio circuit, and were the among the best iterations of a style that would soon be eclipsed by Youssou N'Dour's mbalax craze. Orchestra Baobab has since reformed as a globe-trotting Afro-pop headliner, and 2002's Specialist in All Styles was a completely serviceable, pleasant offering. But for the group at its best, La Belle Epoque delivers. -Nathan Salsburg
Crime were so deep that they managed to find some rare and secret portal, one which seems to have extricated them from punk's even more secretly inevitable, torporous continuum. They must have done this primarily by coming before much of what was convulsively tagged as punk, and as well by aligning themselves, image-wise, WITH authority (dressed up as policemen, rumored to have worked as prison guards etc.). In fact there's a lot of simple "rock" to their music, at least here and now, with a fair amount of hindsight. The guitarist's frequent squalling leads are as redolent of L.A. Sunset Strip sleaze action as they are of anything else. Their claim to have been Frisco's "first and only rock and roll band" seems too a swipe at where they hailed from. In both the aforementioned way and a few more, they could be sufficiently construed as part of an L.A.-centric, unabashedly doom and art-wracked mindset. The alternate takes included at the end of "Hot Wire My Heart" (sound familiar?) and "Baby, You're So Repulsive" are an added treat, with the latter being one of the finest love songs I've heard in some time. -Dan Hougland
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