As the saying goes, good things always come in threes. The New Year fully subscribes to the maxim and proves as much with this, the launch of their third and final album teaser video clip. A little secret: this one includes a brief audio preview of what will be their first single, “The Company I Can Get”, from the upcoming self-titled album (out 9/09/08).
I need this album. Now.
The New Year will be at DC9 on October 21st. Click below for the rest of their tour schedule.
On September 23rd, Astronautalis (Andy Bothwell) will return with his third full length, Pomegranate. This is Astro’s first album since 2006’s The Mighty Ocean And Nine Dark Theaters. Since the release of that album, Bothwell has relocated from Jacksonville, Florida to Seattle. Bothwell has also made the move to Eyeball Records, who will handle the release of Pomegranate. This will be the New Jersey label’s first release by an artist with hip-hop roots, but to be fair to Bothwell, he is notorious for his incredibly diverse palette, a fact you’ll realize with just a single listen to one of his albums. Pomegranate was produced by John Congleton and Chris Godbey. You can preview the album’s strong opening track, “The Wondersmith and His Sons,” on Astro’s MySpace.
Pomegranate
01. The Wondersmith and His Sons (Stream)
02. 17 Summers
03. Secrets of the Undersea Bell
04. My Old Man’s Badge
05. Two Years Before The Mast
06. Mr. Blessington’s Imperialist Plot
07. An Episode of Sparrows
08. The Case of William Smith
09. Trouble Hunters
10. Avalanche Patrol
11. The Most Important Track on the Album
12. The Story of My Life
Tour
7/31/08 - Seattle, Washington - Jewel Box Theater @ Rendezvous
Stars Of The Lid’sBrian McBride has joined forces with producer Kenneth James Gibson to form Bell Gardens. The duo are working on an album that Gibson describes as “a new heady, classical, pop record” that contains “lots of vocals, strings, horns.” I know that isn’t much information, but I’ll try to dig up more. Until then, you can visit their MySpace page to listen to five rough mixes and form your own opinion. Listen to “To Land.” The strings sound great. It is wonderful to hear McBride tackle more straightforward material while retaining his classical influences.
Paul Westerberg hasn’t released a new album since 2004’s uneven Folker. He hasn’t released new material since contributing a handful of songs to 2006’s soundtrack to the animated film Open Season. Despite this, 2008 has been good to Westerberg fans. In April, The Replacements’ Twin/Tone catalogue was reissued and expanded by Rhino. Last week, it was revealed that Rhino will drop reissues of the Mats’ four major label efforts for Sire on September 23rd. Over the weekend, Westerberg fans received an unexpected surprise that skyrocketed their 2008 from good to great.
As detailed in-depth by Billboard, Paul Westerberg has released a new album digitally on Amazon.com and TuneCore (for non-U.S. listeners). The album is called 49:00 (It is only 43:55 in length though) and it has two twists. The first is that costs $0.49 and the second is that it is a glorious mess contained within a single MP3 file. Westerberg’s manager Darren Hill told Billboard, “He finished it on Monday, sent it to me on Tuesday and it was out this weekend. It’s just wonderful that you can actually do this. The freedom an artist can enjoy these days is fantastic. Can you imagine me pitching this idea to a label?” This is Westerberg on an unrestricted level, ignoring every rule and thriving because of it.
The album does not come with a tracklisting and many of the songs fade in and out of each other or overlap. On albums that skip around or are delivered in a fast pace, reviewers often use an analogy that liken the music to an artist switching stations on a radio. I can’t think of a better analogy to describe 49:00. It even contains a cathartic mash-up of classic rock covers near the end. 49:00 sounds like classic Westerberg, but he comes off as so much more comfortable in this situation where he has decided that the rules simply do not apply. To say the least, it takes Folker to the woodshed. This is the most fun I’ve had as a Westerberg fan in quite some time.
If you were hoping for a new Tim Hecker album in 2008, you’re not going to like this post. I inquired about the status of a new Hecker LP on Kranky’s (Hecker’s label) MySpace page like any good fan boy would. Mr. Kranky replied with the following:
it’s looking like an early ‘09 release for tim. he sent us a rough mix of the next full-length and it sounds gorgeous, unsurprisingly.
mr.kranky
Sure, that is slightly disappointing, but the Chicago label have a pair of releases set for October 14th that will more than tide me over. Veteran noisemakers Windy & Carl return with their seventh full length, Songs For The Broken Hearted. You can stream three samples from the album here courtesy of Windy Weber. Weber released her debut solo album, I Hate People, earlier this year.
October 14th will also see the release of Temper, the second full length release from Benoît Pioulard (real name = Tom Meluch). Pioulard released the excellent Précis on Kranky in 2006. A teaser video for Temper can be seen below. Pioulard is also working on an EP for the boutique label Hall Of Owls as well as a collaboration (Songs Spun Simia) with Praveen Sharma on Music Related. I was able to coax a tracklisting for Temper out of Benoît via email:
1, ragged tint 2, ahn 3, sweep generator 4, golden grin 5, the loom pedal 6, ardoise 7, physic 8, modèle d’éclat 9, idyll 10, brown bess 11, cycle disparaissant 12, a woolgathering exodus 13, détruisons tout 14, loupe 15, tapyre 16, hesperus
Stay tuned as I will be sending some questions to Benoît for a mini-interview.
P.S. I haven’t been sold on Deerhunter, but Kranky will release their Microcastle album two weeks later on October 28th.
As detailed in-depth by 
