tapes 'n tapes [cowbell]

okkervil river [our life is not a movie or maybe]

always found okkervil river sort of good & for real was, of course, a brilliant song but somehow i never could bother to listen to their albums repeatedly. the stage names changed that. bloody fine album.

sunset rubdown [up on your leopard, upon the end of your feral days]

alex delivery [komad]

Liars - Plaster Casts Of Everything

brilliant video from the liars' forthcoming album, imaginatively titled, again, liars. the album it self is a welcome change in direction, again, for the liars. not that their last album was bad - it was actually really good but listening to it was sort of like going to the gym for me. getting yourself to go there is a pain in ass but once you are there it's actually pretty good. needlessly to say i never go to the gym. and i hardly listened to the last album - even though it was pretty damn good. at any rate, the new one is more like going out to play soccer.

caribou [melody day]

caribou's new album andorra is due out next month. frankly, the idea of caribou always sounded better than the real thing to me. with andorra caribou finally lives up to its promise. still the album doesn't really represent much of a change, caribou is still treading sort of psychedelic electronic waters (for a lack of better description). at times, it sounds a bit like a modernized version of dungen. it is not a perfect album - it sort of loses its pace half way through - but the first few tracks more than make up for that.

white whale [the admiral]

i think i might have posted something about white whale before but, well, they deserve another post - because ww1 might just be one of those criminally overlooked albums. in terms of what they sound like i guess the decemberists are the obvious reference but for some reason the also make me think of the triffids and the go-betweens. and british sea power. ww1 actually works best as an album and it is one of the few albums that i have had the patience to listen to over the last couple of years. Available over at emusic.com.

A couple more:
temporary maam
fidget and fudge

Von Südenfed [rhinohead]

the album didn't really get great reviews but, hell, this track is great. i know i'll get a lot of crap from a lot of people but mark e. smith hasn't sounded this enjoyable in a long time....

goddamn electric bill [lost in the zoo]

Contemporary Noise Quintet [Goodbye Monster]

i'm not sure why i picked this album up - neither the name of the band nor the name of the album sounds to promising. plus its jazz. and, in my mind, most jazz is either about showing off your technical ability or about providing comfy background music. cnq seems not too concerned with either (not that i doubt their technical skills - i just don't care). this is jazz with attitude. as i don't know anything about jazz that's about the best i can do to describe it. but listening to the album names like max richter, amon tobin, goran bregovic, tom waits (wouldn't a goran-tom album be a great idea?) and even some post-rock bands - the start of goodbye monster is not miles away from do make say think, for example.

gui boratto [xilo]

it took me a little while to get into this album but i'm glad i stuck with it. it really is quite nice - I like to listen to it while I'm working. or while I'm avoiding work playing solitaire. it appears that the song 'beautiful life' has been getting the most attention b/c it is the track on the album with the highest potential to annoy you. and wouldn't it have been a much better song if it had been called 'miserable life'? anyhow, xilo is probably the track that was responsible for me giving the album a chance. something tells me that gui was listening to the joy division and the cure...

polyphonic spree [Get Up and Go]

i had sort of given up on the polyphonic spree but so far i quite like their new one, the fragile army, perhaps because they sound more like mercury rev than ever before. or what?

portugal. the man are from alaska. i think they are fun too. [church mouth] [telling tellers tell me] maybe too polished?

other things spinning: new pornographers, shellac, white stripes, mus, liars, bracken, dizzee rascal, stars of the lid, dungen, gui boratto

benoit pioulard [enge]

i stumbled upon this 2005 release, enge, by benoit pioulard on emusic. & it's nice. if you haven't checked out one of the best albums of 2006, precis, you should do so now. perfect music for hazy summer days. or chilly winter days.

The New Pornographers [My Rights vs. Yours]

The New Pornographers - My Rights vs. Yours
Modest Mouse - King Rat
Shannon Wright - Everybody's got their own party to play
Cocorosie - Rainbowarriors
The For Carnations - Emp. Man's Blues
Pinback - Fortress
Sounds like Violence - The Greatest
Bonde de Role - Quero Te Amar

interpol [heinrich maneuver]

heinrich?!

Thee More Shallows [Fly Paper]

ra ra riot [each year]

the little ones vs. crystal castles ...

pitchforkmedia posted this splendid remix of an already good song a little while ago (& has also been in heavy rotation on ghostdogjr's webjay): lovers who uncover

the original one: lovers who uncover
& one of crystal castles own: air war

& some other stuff:

white rabbit - the plot

illinois - one on one

el-p - smithereens (stop crying)

cursive - dorothy at forty

bang gang - find what you get

amon tobin - chronic tonic

tub ring - when the crash happened

the comas - red microphones

calla - swagger

single frame - exact copy of this in the basement

detachment kit [18 yrs.]

just thought i'd throw up a couple of detachment kit songs b/c their last album is so damn hard to find. great album. & you can by it here: www.detachmentkit.com. mr. dash dash

laura veirs [don't lose yourself]

a change in direction for laura veirs. if i wanted to be mean i would say it was sort of a poor man's version of the postal service. but i'm not mean so i won't say that. all i'll say is that i find it quite enjoyable.