January 28, 2009

		FEATURED NEW RELEASES Stereo Linear Movement Doug Paisley Chas Smith Doug Randle Blackout Beach Loney Dear Franz Ferdinand Beat Boys Gal Costa Colossal Yes   A Passing Fancy Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Gary Louris & Mark Olson Lithops Nickel Eye All the Saints VINYL PRESSING Jorge Ben

		Pre-order $13.99 CD w/Ticket   PHOSPHORESCENT PRE-ORDER & TICKET GIVEAWAY Phosphorescent have put together a haunting new record of Willie Nelson cover songs for their forthcoming release (out February 3rd on Dead Oceans). To celebrate, they'll be performing the album in its entirety in a few select cities, including Brooklyn on February 28th at the beautiful new Gowanus venue, the Bell House. Other Music is pleased to offer one ticket to this special performance to the first 25 customers who purchase the CD from us. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28 THE BELLHOUSE: 149 7th Street (between 2nd & 3rd Avenues) Brooklyn

		JAN Sun 25 Mon 26 Tues 27 Wed 28 Thurs 29 Fri 30 Sat 31   WIN TICKETS TO JOHN TEJADA AT THE BUNKER! The next installment of the Bunker (which is now a monthly party) is not to be missed, with one of techno's finest, John Tejada (Palette, Poker Flat), returning as a special guest. Silent Servant (Sandwell District, Historia y Violencia) will be joining Tejada in the back room while DJ Jus-Ed (Underground Quality), DJ Qu (Underground Quality, Strength Music), Fred P a/k/a Black Jazz Consortium (UQ, Soul People Music) and Anthony Parasole (UQ, Deconstruct, Halcyon) will be holding it down in the front. Other Music has two pairs of passes to give away to this great night. Just email tickets@othermusic.com, and we'll throw your name in the hat. The two winners will be notified this Friday morning. FRIDAY, JANUARY 30 THE BUNKER @ PUBLIC ASSEMBLY: North 6th Street (between Wythe and Kent) Williamsburg, Brooklyn

		FEB Sun 15 Mon 16 Tues 17 Wed 18 Thurs 19 Fri 20 Sat 21   OTHER MUSIC IN-STORE PERFORMANCE THESE ARE POWERS: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16 @ 8:00PM We are thrilled to be hosting a record release party and in-store performance from These Are Powers, celebrating their awesome new Dead Oceans' album, All Aboard Future. It's a free performance, plus this will be the first chance to pick up the band's new CD and LP. We hope you can make it! OTHER MUSIC: 15 East 4th Street NYC Free Admission / Limited Capacity

		$17.99 CD $20.99 LP $9.99 MP3 $20.99 LP $9.99 MP3   STEREO Somewhere in the Night (Minimal Wave) LINEAR MOVEMENT On the Screen (Minimal Wave) You can tell that the Minimal Wave label puts a lot of heart into their output just from their consistent flow of great, rare music. Both of these albums have a convincing, well-written and composed quality that sets them apart from your average workaday, basement tape variety synthwave release. And believe me, that's saying something since I definitely have a soft spot for basement tape variety synthwave. First up is Somewhere in the Night, a collection of recordings, circa 1982-'85, from France's Stereo. The three opening tracks are full of some totally unexpected workout video/jazz-wave vibes that had Other Music's Karen and I wondering why we couldn't stop listening! I kept hearing shades of "Xanadu," Irene Cara's "What a Feeling" and the Blade Runner soundtrack (only imagine Vangelis collaborating with a mellower Visage and a more mysterious Human League and Roxy Music) all rolled into one infectious train wreck. Then the epic drama-dub of "Moonshine" came on. Karen and I both smiled and looked at each other with knowing nods of the head. It all suddenly made sense; embrace this record and don't be afraid. I know the description might sound a bit scary, but Somewhere in the Night actually rules! There is an unabashed sincerity to the entire package that just works. Not only is this a very welcomed curveball from the label, it's also the very first release on Minimal Wave to be made available ("Gasp!") on both vinyl LP and compact disc, as well as MP3 download! (The CD version comes with a nicely printed poster to match the LP's insert, just ask for it at the counter.) Next up is Belgium's Linear Movement with their previously unreleased album from 1983, On the Screen. Featuring Peter Koutstaal, Peter Bonne (from A Split Second, Twilight Ritual, Autumn) and female vocalist Lieve Van Steerteghem, the trio's beautifully mastered LP balances warm, slightly macabre yet effectively versatile synth-pop that's fused with dubby new wave and un-forced, moody disco elements. This is a special kind of album that can move from sexy and synthy to dark and funky effortlessly, sometimes within just one track, in the best way possible. These are songs that grab your attention at the outset and still manage to give more before the track is through. Slinky, decadent and classy cuts like "Way Out of Living," "I Think I'm by You" and "To Another Soul" makes one long for a better world where this stuff would've been on Casey Kasem's American Top 40. (I know Linear Movement may be Belgian, but Nena's "99 Luftballons" was a hit over here, right?) On the Screen also includes "The Game," a jam which was featured on Minimal Wave's nearly out-of-print Lost Tapes compilation. News flash: We are very proud to announce that we now have a limited selection of Minimal Wave releases available exclusively on our MP3 site (where you can preview all of the songs)! So all you synthwave neophytes who haven't gone analog yet can get your mope on while on the way to work with your favorite brand of MP3 player! [SM]

		$13.99 CD 13.99 LP $9.99 MP3   DOUG PAISLEY Doug Paisley (No Quarter) "A Day Is Very Long" "Take Me with You" Although he's a Canadian who resides in the green and pleasant land of Great Britain, Doug Paisley is a man infected with the bug of Americana. His debut album is presented here as a collection of 'classic' style songwriting and simple production values that hark back to some of the greatest artists of the last century; and like Fleet Foxes before him, he's got an ear for memorable hooks too. However, for all the reverence towards classic Americana, Paisley's deepest love seems to be for fellow Canadian Neil Young, and this is blended somehow with a Bonny 'Prince' Billy-like simplicity and stark quality giving the songs an almost skeletal resonance. It should be no surprise then that Paisley toured with Oldham and these songs rise and fall graciously, occasionally cracking into femme-featured duets not unlike those we all fell in love with on the Bonnie Prince's great 2006 release, The Letting Go. Paisley imbues his songs with a charm and an honesty, and his lack of distinct originality would no doubt be affirmed by the man himself. This self-titled introduction doesn't seem to be an attempt at anything particularly genre bending, rather an exercise in methodology, refinement and charm. And as we slowly draw ever closer to an economic black hole, charm is a commodity none of us should take for granted. [JT]

		$13.99 CD $9.99 MP3   CHAS SMITH Nakadai (Cold Blue) "Nakadai" "The Ghosts on the Windows" Early and recent work from one of the finest and most singular American composers working today, instrument builder and pedal steel guitarist extraordinaire Chas Smith. Smith is a somewhat reclusive West Coast artist working in what composer/critic Kyle Gann sardonically dubs the "maverick" tradition of American composition, alongside such forebears as Harry Partch or Conlon Nancarrow, but with a much more minimalist bent. The first four tracks date from the late eighties when his compositional methods were beginning to fully flower; tons of shimmering overtones are conjured from the slowly sliding notes of his pedal steel guitar, overdubbed with droney resonances malleted out of either gongs or homemade metallic percussion instruments. He's a master at conjuring a sort of shimmery, floating, celestial heaviness -- massed clouds of sound in which one is totally enveloped in a disorienting and beautiful mist that seems to press in on your being. The highlight here may be a piece from the early nineties, however, a brief homage to country-swing pedal steel pioneer Joaquin Murphy, in which the properties of Smith's guitar are most fully recognizable, each note sounding like a teardrop slowly falling from heaven. [MK]

		$15.99 CD $9.99 MP3   DOUG RANDLE Songs for the New Industrial State (Light in the Attic) "Coloured Plastics" "Vive la Company" Light in the Attic snatches from obscurity a glimpse at the talents of Canadian arranger/composer Doug Randle. This record gave me a pleasant surprise; being totally unfamiliar with Randle, I was rather impressed by this album upon first listen in the shop. A concept record on the plights of pollution and industrialization on the Earth's environment, the sticker on the front cover touts this as a collusion of David Axelrod and the Free Design, and for once a sticker is right on! According to the liner notes, Randle had an interesting back-story -- he spent time working for the BBC and was a young apprentice to Scott Walker arrangers Wally Stott and Peter Knight. Traces of their approaches to Walker's heavy Euro vibes come across here, minus the dense orchestral landscapes -- Randle's approach to strings is definitely of the Axelrod school, accenting the rhythms rather that enveloping them. The slow burning, sultry grooves and baroque flourishes balance the equation quite nicely, and the male/female harmony vocals make the Free Design comparisons nearly unavoidable; at the same time, the songs escape the Design's problem of at times being a bit too fey and lightweight for the emotional weight of the songs they were singing, which is not the case on the socio-political material here. As a nice bonus, there is a thick booklet filed with biographical info, photos, and best of all, the album's lyrics. Nice work as usual by one of the most satisfying reissue labels making the rounds today. [IQ]

		$13.99 CD $9.99 MP3   BLACKOUT BEACH Skin of Evil (Soft Abuse) "Cloud of Evil" "Biloxi, in a grove, cleans out his eyes" It's all too easy to misinterpret Skin of Evil; from the very outset there's a hint that Carey Mercer's intentions are somewhat lofty, and lofty rarely blends seamlessly with lo-fi. Even the press release lavishes the album with comparisons to Scott Walker and Suicide and comes with a personal letter of recommendation from Destroyer's Dan Bejar, so our expectations on diving into the record are elevated to say the least. The album isn't Scott Walker or Suicide, but neither has Carey Mercer let himself down; the promise of Frog Eyes was never really realized, and here he has truly begun to forge the sound he always hinted at. These are electronic pop songs thrown through a mangle and fed back in through the other side, but where Animal Collective aim for sun-bleached West Coast abandon, Mercer is aiming for a darker spot. Indeed I detect the putrid ghosts of Factory Records in here somewhere, the twisted shadow of new-wave and the decaying corpse of industrial music. There's a similar love of doomy theatrics and an over-arching gothic theme that's impossible to ignore. There might be a pop hit in there somewhere but it's through a thick fog of lo-fidelity noise and stuttering drum machines, a dark cloud of reverb and scraping metal. For me this brings to mind the very early days of electronic pop music, before Human League lost the plot, before the high-concept videos and bowls of 'free' powders -- this is when pop music could almost exist in the bedroom of a jaded Dutch technician. Mercer does his best to re-gain this focus and authenticity and through the theatrics he does indeed manage it -- Skin of Evil might just be the best thing he's touched to date; it's no easy ride but it enthralls and surprises at every turn. [JT]

		$13.99 CD $13.99 LP   LONEY DEAR Dear John (Polyvinyl) "I Was Only Going Out" "Airport Surroundings" Swedish singer/songwriter Emil Svanängen, a/k/a Loney Dear (oh to be a fly on the wall when someone decided to talk him out of the comma that used to inhabit his band name), delivers his most accomplished work in Dear John, his third full-length and Polyvinyl debut. Svanängen stakes out vaguely the same territory as fellow countryman Jens Lekman, crafting melancholy indie-pop with meticulous production values and downbeat emotionalism. The new one often bubbles with electro-pop flourishes, from percolating rhythms to swooping synths and multi-tracked vocal trickery, but in the end it is about Svanängen's fragile voice and simple, circular songwriting that tends to build and build rather than follow the traditional verse/chorus volley. Lovely, dear (comma retained). [JM]

		$14.99 CD   FRANZ FERDINAND Tonight (Epic) "Ulysses" "Cant Stop Feeling" Back in 2005, Franz Ferdinand were able to sidestep that dreaded sophomore slump with You Could Have It So Much Better. Coming off of their smash debut, the Scottish quartet's follow-up didn't re-write any rules; what wasn't broken didn't need to be fixed. The band stayed on the same trajectory as the first record, offering another highly catchy set of propulsive, harmony-filled modern rock anthems, and sounding tighter and more powerful than ever they proved that their success wasn't just beginner's luck. But that only upped the ante for album number three, with critics and fans alike expecting Franz Ferdinand to spread their artistic wings or risk being branded a one trick pony. So after a couple-year break from the road, the group returns with Tonight, their most diverse set to date, the band moving beyond the angular, dance-punk constraints that they pioneered. It's immediately apparent in album opener "Ulysses," where their jagged guitars have been softened a bit and the synths are turned up several notches in the mix. And while there's no absence of Alex Kapranos' trademark sing-a-longs, when he croons "I found a new way baby," it's easy to assume that there's a double meaning at play here -- Franz Ferdinand have never sounded so funky. Produced by Dan Carey, who's turned the knobs for the likes of Dizzee Rascal, CSS and the Long Blondes, tracks like electro-backboned "No You Girls" and "Can't Stop Feeling" could have easily been Hot Chip tunes if not for Franz's Glaswegian swagger, while the latter half of "Lucid Dreams" detours into buzzing techno. But the slinky, laidback funk of "Send Him Away" turns out to be one of Tonight's unexpected highlights, the group incorporating loose Afrobeat-inspired guitar lines and keyboard flourishes and eventually breaking into a dubbed-out jam as Kapranos pleads "can't you let me stay tonight" in his best bedroom voice. Even more surprising is the spacey pop of "Dream Again," which comes near album's end and fuses the yearning of Scritti Politti's "The Sweetest Girl" with some early synth-pop cues, a la O.M.D. Who knows if this is a sign of things to come, but Tonight turns out to be a refreshing new chapter in the career of a band so synonymous with dance-punk's halcyon days. One trick pony? Definitely not. [GH]

		$14.99 CD   BEAT BOYS Beat Boys (Lion Productions) "O Meu Tamborim" "Abre Sou Eu" While Tropicalia has already given birth to more household names than one can keep track of, there are still a few criminally underexposed artists out there. Originally from Argentina, the dangerous Beat Boys dressed sharp, grew their hair long (that alone, a crime in Brazil at the time) and played raving 60s pop, and no one knew how to respond except by locking up their daughters. They also served as the backing band for Caetano Veloso and Gilbeto Gil on some of their most charged recordings (most notably on "Alegria, alegria," which practically launched the entire Tropicalia movement). This self-titled album from 1968 matches the Mutantes twisted fuzz-pop moves blow for blow, and delves into Monkees' Head-like whimsical psych territory as well. They've inevitably been compared to the Beatles, like pretty much everything of the era, but the only way that makes sense is if the Beatles grew up during a full-on cultural revolution as opposed to going sightseeing in India and drinking cups of tea with the Maharishi. Comes with a bonus track and a nice 20-page booklet that tells the full story of the Boys. [AK]

		$17.99 LP   GAL COSTA Gal Costa (4 Men with Beards) "Saudosismo" "Deus e Amor" 4 Men with Beards offer up an LP edition of Brazilian Tropicalist and samba siren Gal Costa's 1969 debut solo album, a fiery stomper of psychedelic samba rock which is not to be confused with the recent Dusty Groove reissue of what was her second solo record, also originally from '69. I personally prefer this album; it's without question one of the most blistering examples of what made the Tropicalia movement so exciting: warped, burning guitars, pounding percussion, impassioned vocals, gorgeous arrangements by Rogerio Duprat, and some of the best songs by the best songwriters on the scene at the time. The tunes here are almost entirely by Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Jorge Ben, who respectively OWNED this scene and this sound at the time, and Gal has seldom sounded so excited and energized. This record is 100% essential to any Brazilian pop fan, anyone into the Tropicalia scene, and to anyone who digs the international psyche vibes. The album has been available on CD for some time, but this top-quality LP pressing is really welcome. I never thought I'd say this, but all hail the Bearded ones for bestowing us with wax copies of a true treasure! [IQ]

		$13.99 CD $13.99 LP $9.99 MP3   COLOSSAL YES Charlemagne's Big Thaw (Ba-Da-Bing!) "The Fraudulent Singer" "Marble Moments" Some might deride Comets on Fire for their retrograde fetishism but for me, well, they do it far too well to be called out for having a good ear for 70s psychedelia. On Charlemagne's Big Thaw, Colossal Yes share a similar ear for the past, but this time Comets' drummer Utrillo Kushner doesn't take a knife to the band's amps and throw his kit from the studio roof; instead he focuses on 'songs'. Following on from the really rather lovely Acapulco Roughs, we again see Kushner take the lead on piano and understandably go back to the kind of vintage production methods that make the best records of the 70s sound so special. Sure, it's nothing particularly groundbreaking, but Kushner's light-rock charm is a ray of sunlight through a mass of dirgey psychedelic boredom. Charlemagne's Big Thaw might not have the pure balls-out mind-altering qualities of Comets on Fire, but with this solo project he has managed to come up with the West Coast antidote. These are timeless melodies that are voiced enchantingly -- and with help from Kelley Stoltz and the omnipresent Ben Chasny, it's hard to go far wrong. Songs rise and fall through the modest duration and rarely crack the four-minute mark leaving me with a sense that maybe they did get it right way back when. It is the music that portable radios were made to play -- we'll see whether it translates for the web 2.0 generation. [JT]

		$14.99 CD   A PASSING FANCY A Passing Fancy (Lion Productions) "I Believe in Sunshine" "I'm Losing Tonight" One of the best 60s records to come out of Canada, A Passing Fancy's self-titled debut from 1968 is a rare treat in that it genre hops all over the place but still comes across as fully cohesive and accomplished album. The band, led by singer/songwriter/guitar player Jay Telfer, pulls off a couple of amazingly catchy top 40/Swinging London-sounding tracks ("I Believe in Sunshine" sticks like gum to shoe) only to switch to wild garage punkers and then dive headfirst into longer acid rock trips ("Spread Out" sounds amazing in its remastered version here, completely lysergic and unstoppable.). And the wicked "Your Trip" actually does the gorgeous psychedelic cover art justice. Overall highly endorsed, and if you consider yourself a fan of late-60s pop psych, A Passing Fancy is a no-brainer. [AK]

		$14.99 CD $9.99 MP3   OMAR RODRIGUEZ-LOPEZ Old Money (Stones Throw) "Trilateral Commission as Dinner Guests" "How to Bill the Bilderberg Group" My initial thought on diving into Old Money was probably the same as most of yours out there -- At the Drive-In and the Mars Volta man Omar Rodriguez-Lopez on Stones Throw? How the hell did that happen? Then I started to think about it a little -- progressive rock is a much-maligned genre, but it has found favor finally with that lovingly elitist sort: the crate digger. It makes sense; the music that nobody else wants is often seen as a challenge for Mr. Digger and in recent years we have seen the rise of obscure 60s and 70s gems drifting into fashion (sort of) from labels such as B-Music and 4 Men with Beards. Stones Throw are no stranger to the world of the crate digger either -- for starters the label is run by Peanut Butter Wolf, a man who prides himself on a sickening knowledge that would make most diggers weak at the knees, and their house artist is the indomitable Madlib -- need I say more? So with all this in mind, maybe a forty-minute slab of instrumental prog from Rodriguez-Lopez makes perfect sense. He might not be so credible, but who needs credibility when you've got the chops to play like Van Halen covering King Crimson? Old Money is literally dripping with licks, riffs and breaks and hints at the kind of knowing excess Hella moved into in their more recent records without showing any danger of getting too exclusively experimental. Somewhere inside the stuttering epic progressions there's a sense of a pop song -- one that has been sped up to four times the tempo and then dropped into triplets, but a pop song all the same. You remember Genesis started as progressive rock before veering off into Billboard friendly air-punching balladry, so maybe what we have here is something of an interim. It's technical and bombastic but somehow honest, heavy and masculine but with a delicacy that hints at something more than your average piece of showy math-rock. Maybe Stones Throw knew what they were up to all along -- either way they have released an oddity that is likely to be loved and hated in equal measure for some time to come. And I'm sure Rodiguez-Lopez wouldn't have it any other way. [JT]

		$16.99 CD   GARY LOURIS & MARK OLSON Ready for the Flood (New West) "The Rose Society" "When the Wind Comes Up" A reunion album of sorts for two alt-country figureheads, Gary Louris and Mark Olson, onetime principal singer-songwriters for the fondly remembered Jayhawks during their heyday in the late eighties and early nineties. A much maligned genre for sure, but a couple of acts managed to transcend the stylistic limitations of the No Depression era, and the Jayhawks were definitely one them. Olson apparently walked away from the band amidst some personal acrimony, but he and Louris have either buried the hatchet or set aside the animosity as this is a fine, fine album that finds both men working in sympathetic unison at the top of their games. It's gorgeously produced by one of our favorite regular customers, Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes; exquisitely intimate and loose, with the barest amount of instrumental shading that brings to mind classic albums by the likes of Gene Clark, Jansch and Renbourn, or even Karen Dalton. I can already tell you "Bicycle" is one of the best songs of the year; the delivery will just totally tear you down in the best possible way. And that's far from the only timeless and heart-rending song to be found here, the whole album is filled with well-crafted and moving tracks that ought to show all these younger folkies a thing or two; a highly recommended and welcome return for a great song-writing team. [MK]

		$13.99 CD $13.99 LP $9.99 MP3   LITHOPS Ye Viols! (Thrill Jockey) "Handed" The newest release from Lithops, the solo project of Mouse on Mars' Jan St. Werner, is a collection of sound pieces that accompanied recent installations and exhibitions by various visual artists. Ranging from the more organically composed to the rigidly linear, the dense soundscapes are extremely diverse and textural, which makes for a very rewarding and highly visceral listening experience. Other Music Digital is offering a Free Song Download of "Handed," off of the new Lithops album, through Friday.

		$11.99 CD   NICKEL EYE Time of the Assasins (Ryko) "You and Everyone Else" I was just musing the other day on whether or not the Strokes had to get day jobs yet, but I guess they have some other stopgap options if the trust funds run out. Casablancas is shilling shoes, Albert Hammond's solo releases keep him pretty busy, and here is Nickel Eye, fronted by Strokes bassman Nikolai Fraiture. Time of the Assassins is low-key rock and roll, drawing on stuff like Leonard Cohen and the Kinks, with some nice playing, tasteful production and cool guest stars including YYY's Nic Zinner, Regina Spektor, and the U.K. band South. Fraiture's laidback vocal style is not light years from that of his other band's frontman, but I doubt it will keep him out of the employment office indefinitely. [JM]

		$13.99 CD $13.99 LP $9.99 MP3   ALL THE SAINTS Fire on Corridor X (Touch and Go) "Leeds" "Mil Mil" Late last year Touch and Go snapped up this moody Alabama via Atlanta hard rock trio, and reissued their great debut as a download, and then LP, and now we get the proper CD release (still the format of record, I guess). It's true the band has a few Sabbath riffs in their arsenal, and they can be heavy as lead, but Fire on Corridor X is far from a tired re-hash, delivering a dark, percussive suite of songs that are full of dynamic and smart arrangements and production, making for a moving album. [JM]

		$17.99 LP $13.99 CD   JORGE BEN Forca Bruta (4 Men with Beards) "Oba La Ven Ela" "Mulher Brasileira" One of Jorge Ben's deepest, most emotional albums, 1970's Forca Bruta, is now available on LP. After the previous year's self-titled shakedown partyfest LP (the one which features "Take It Easy My Brother, Charlie" and "Pais Tropical"), Forca Bruta sees Ben mellowing out a bit for an album that, while it still grooves solidly, relies more on quiet intimacy and subtle orchestrated flourishes akin to the work of Caetano Veloso's self-titled LPs of the same period. Here he's backed up here by samba heavyweights Trio Mocoto, leaving the primary instrumentation down to Ben's unmistakable rhythm guitar and the trio's percussion; despite the lack of low end, everything swings, shakes, and bumps, and JB's vocals never quite sounded as throaty and passionate in the early years as they did on this LP -- the fire in his voice on this album is matched perhaps only on his 1976 classic Africa Brazil. Anyone with an interest in Brazilian soul and post-tropicalist pop would be wise to check out this record; it's an essential part of Ben's early discography, and without question one of the most beautiful records the man has ever recorded. (CD version reissued on Dusty Groove.) [IQ]

		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 [GH] Gerald Hammill [IQ] Mikey IQ Jones [MK] Michael Klausman [AK] Andreas Knutsen [JM] Josh Madell [SM] Scott Mou [JT] John Twells THANKS FOR READING - all of us at Other Music

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