International Rock Day
August 10, 2003
Just a warning to music shoppers: September 9th has an inordinate amount of great releases. I’ll probably be dropping a heinous amount of cash that day. A debriefing of what will be showing up:
Pretty Girls Make Graves – The New Romance
This has taken a few listens to get into, but I hear and feel something new every time I go through. This record delivers on the promise of the Good Health EP, which flirts with but never actually achieves greatness. Screeching guitars float over a dynamic rhythm section and Andrea Zollo gets down and takes over vocals full time (no more boy/girl tradeoff vocals). The incredibly tight songwriting keeps the record from swallowing itself during the instrumental breaks, which is usually the kiss of death for this sort of thing. Honestly, the most refreshing thing about PGMG is that I can’t describe their sound with some two-band, Hollywood pitch style description, which I can do with practically ANY band that’s broken through in the past three retro-ridden years.
Quasi – Hot Shit
They aren’t kidding with that title, either. All the previous Quasi records didn’t really prepare me for this one, which is one of those weird quantum leap records that just leaves everything else in the dust. It still sounds like Quasi, but there are echoes of Flaming Lips, Radiohead, Tom Waits, Led Zeppelin, Pavement… it’s Quasi-Everything. And it’s funny too. I believe there’s a bonus live CD attached to any copy bought at an indie record store, so I’ll have to hunt down that version.
Beulah – Yoko
Beulah’s 4th and possibly final record is quite good, if not great. There are very few horns and uplifting arrangements like on their previous records, but still a pretty fascinating release. It snakes around and goes lots of different places, and it’s a great record to listen to in the dark. Very UnBeulah.
That’s just the stuff I’ve heard. Belle and Sebastian, Andrew WK and the Decemberists are also putting out new records that day. Elvis Costello’s also got three reissues coming out (Get Happy, Trust and Punch the Clock) all with even more new bonus material. Get Happy has a bonus CD with *30* tracks.
Outkast has a new double album coming out, but I think that was pushed back to the 23rd. I’m not quite sure on that, but I do know that their first single, Hey Ya is total music crack. It’ll probably overplayed and I’ll hate it three months from now, but for right now it’s perfect. Shake it like a polaroid picture, Dre.
Posted in From Blown Speakers
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May 13th, 2004 at 7:27 pm
Wow, new Quasi? And without the animal cover theme as well. Fan-fucking-tastic. Thanks for alerting me to the record shop bonanza. Time to head back down to Streetlight.
May 13th, 2004 at 7:27 pm
Donewaiting.com says the Quasi album is the shit as well. BTW, PGMG’s Good Health is a full length, not an EP. Hopefully The New Romance is nearly as good.