The first 3 months of 2008 have shown some great CD releases. Here are just some of the CDs that have been released so far this year. Let me know if there are any that I missed!

January
Magnetic Fields - Distortion
Cat Power - Jukebox
Liam Finn - I'll Be Lightning
Bodies of Waer - Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink
Matt Costa - Unfamiliar Faces
Evangelicals - The Evening Descends
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
The Whigs - Mission Control
The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Ida - Lovers Prayers
Loius XIV - Slick Dogs and Ponies
Chris Walla - Field Manuel
Xiu Xiu - Women as Lovers

February
Hot Chip - Made in the Dark
Jack Johnson - Sleep Through The Static
Kelley Stoltz - Circular Sounds
Air Traffic - Fractured Life
Basia Bulat - Oh, My Darling
Jason Collett - Here's To Being Here
Nada Surf - Lucky
Say Hi - The Wishes and the Glitch
School of Language - Sea From Shore
Sons & Daughters - This Gift
British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
The Rumble Strips - Girls and Weather
American Music Club - The Golden Age
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Mike Doughty - Golden Delicious
Grand Archives - The Grand Archives
The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
No Kids - Come Into My House
Throw Me The Statue - Moonbeams
Andrew Bird - Soldier On
Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
Missy Higgins - On A Clear Night

March
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
Born Ruffians - Red, Yellow & Blue
Ladyhawk - Shots
Ruby Suns - Sea Lion
What Made Milwaukee Famous - What Doesn't Kill Us
Greg Laswell - How The Day Sounds
Destroyer - Trouble In Dreams
DeVotchKa - A Mad and Faithful Telling
The Kills - Midnight Boom
She & Him - Volume One
The Bravery - The Sun and the Moon: Complete
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
The Hush Sound - Goodbye Blues
The Matches - A Band In Hope
We Are Scientists - Brain Thrust Mastery
Lykke Li - Little Bit EP

Aural Cleansings take on 1/8/08’s releases of merit

There were a few new releases on Tuesday that were worth mentioning. I unfortunately have been able to procure 1 of the 3 that came out but the other two deserve mention at least.

1. SIA “Some People Have Real Problems”
I have read some reviews of this album already that have given a lot of merit to Sia’s voice. I have only listened to snippets on her website and on ITUNES. I will say that she does have a unique sound and I am interested to hear her full tunage to make a better assessment of the mad skills that are obviously present. http://www.siamusic.net/

2. Medeski, Martin and Wood “Let’s Go Everywhere”
This is the cd that I really want to hear the most because it is targeted towards kids. MMW are probably the tightest jazz trio I have ever witnessed in concert or recorded (and you really need to check out there quad stuff with John Scofield for it “Rocks the Party”). As are most things that MMW releases, it has received glittering recognition. I have to admit I haven’t heard much of their latest experimental stuff but since this is for kids, I can pretty much guarantee it is going to much more accessible. http://www.mmw.net/

3. Various Artists “Juno Soundtrack”
This is the one cd that I have heard and I have to say that it has not disappointed me. I saw the movie about 3 weeks ago and I thought while I was watching it, “This soundtrack makes me feel like I did when I first saw that ‘Tonight, Tonight’ music video. All warm and full inside.” This cd is a bit schmaltzy and a lot poppy but it also is one of the best soundtracks I have heard in a long time. Some people have said that it might rival the “Garden State” soundtrack (I disagree. Garden State had many individual songs but I didn’t feel it flowed very well. Juno has individual songs and flows, song to song, moment to moment) in regards to sales and popularity. The songs that make me the happiest are those by Kimya Dawson, Belle and Sebastian and the opener by Barry Louis Polistar. I highly recommend this for your pop infusion for the day. http://www.rhino.com/Juno/

Better late then never - here are some new releases from January to check out...

Continue reading "New Tuesday - January 2007"

I haven't done anything, really, with New Tuesday's since June. I wanted to do this quick post so I could keep in mind some of the stuff that has come out up (through October) - some of it I have heard and some of it I mean to check out still.

Continue reading "For my own records"

So, I'll be honest, I got a little bored and bogged down with posting New Tuesdays. It was a good way for me to keep track of what was coming out that I was interested in, but it was a pain. Anyway, I'm taking a break from that.

That said, it was a good Tuesday yesterday. While I haven't listened to any of it, some CDs I'm very excited to hear came out:

Ray LaMontagne
Pete Yorn
M Ward

So check it out!

The rest of June was aight too:

Continue reading "New Tuesday - June (Part Two)"

Hey everyone! I don't know about you but I spent MY 4th weekend sifting through the bags and bags of letters I got about how I didn't post any New Tuesday's for June. Little Cindy, Age 5, from Nebraska had the following to say:

Music Bath,

Bitch, how do you expect me to know what CDs to bye. Post something already you total whore!

Screw off,

Cindy.

Awww. First off, Cindy, it's buy...not bye. It's okay... clearly your mom listened to a little too much Phish during your pregnancy...if you know what I mean. Which I'm pretty sure you don't. Whatever, I'll probably make five or six similar mistakes in this post.

Secondly, that dirty little runt has a point. June (the month, not the band) had some pretty great CDs. So I've been busy this week checking out some recent releases... Here are some of the better or more interesting releases from the past month, just in case you missed them:

Continue reading "New Tuesday - June (Part One)"

Maybe it is the fact that I am burnt out about writing about new CDs, but there wasn't too much this week that really struck me as noteworthy. So I'm going to limit most things to just a single line.

Continue reading "New Tuesday (May 30)"

I'm finally caught up on New Tuesday's. Until tomorrow...

Continue reading "New Tuesday (May 23 Recap)"

CDs released May 16 :

Continue reading "New Tuesday (May 16 Recap)"

In an attempt to catch up on my posting of "New Tuesday" I am going to try truncating my usual format. This would have been super convenient if I hadn't just typed this whole thing up and then had my computer lock up right as I was going to post it. Damn it. So now you're going to get an even lamer version, because I don't really want to write it all up again.

Continue reading "New Tuesday (May 9 Recap)"

Jump, Little Children released their first live album since 1997's Buzz. It features the best of this years Dock Street, which was also, sadly, their swan song. I am anxious to see how the show translated to CD (I was at their last show...I cried like 8 times.) They of course couldn't fit every song on and some are sorely missed (vertigo, between the dim and the dark, etc. etc. etc), but the 23 songs include some of my favorite album tracks that are live standards (say goodnight, mexico), favorite album tracks that are rarely played live (b-13, requiem) and most importantly, old live standards not available on any official Jump releases until now, including my favorite Jump song (Forget My Loss) and many others that I love possibly more than anything from their studio albums (Sean O'Flaherty's Accordian, Taibreamh, Copper Kettle, Mountains So Grand, Green Fields of Canada)! So, despite being sad at the lack of some of my faves I will instead be very very very happy about all of the rarities that the album contains, since those are my favorite live tracks anyhow.

Continue reading "New Tuesday (May 2 Recap)"

Hi everyone! Shayna and I have moved into our new place and have started to get settled it. That means that I should start churning out a couple of posts now and again in the middle of being crazy busy. I mean if Brit can find time to churn out new spawn in her busy life of what I am guessing currently is 24/7 banquet tv dinner eating, I should be able to get out a couple of posts. So, without further pomp and circumstance, here is a look at some of the new albums that came out in my absence. (I am forgoing linking to amazon since I have so much catching up to do!)

The Rakes are a super catchy indie rock/post-punk east London group and their album Capture/Release rocks. Sure, it sounds like a lot of other British Rock stuff that I am digging on now...but hey the more the merrier.

Continue reading "New Tuesday (April 25 Recap)"

New albums from April 18th. Sure, Mat Kearney favors a spoken word rap that sometimes reminds me of Everlast or Crazy Town. He also reminds me a lot of Coldplay and John Mayer...and it actually meshes pretty well with the aforementioned rapping. His new CD, Nothing Left to Lose, features some favorites from his last album, Bullet, as well as new songs (many that he hasn't been playing at concerts recently.) This CD would be perfect for an urban church youth group, but give it a try, it might be perfect for you too.

Continue reading "New Tuesday"

Better late then never, here is a rundown of last Tuesday's new albums. While Idaho's Josh Ritter I think stands up better as a live artist than on CD, "Animal Years" might be the best we have seen from him. It is filled with many beautiful mellow folk songs such as "Idaho," "Monster Ballads," and "One More Mouth" that will be sure to please sad bastard music lovers like me. Be sure to catch Josh live if you have a chance.

Continue reading "New Tuesday"

This most recent Tuesday brought the release of the new Flaming Lips album. Man, I can't believe it has been almost four years since the realase of "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robot." That means it has been almost four years since I graduated college. Yeesh. Judging from the clips I've heard it sounds like a pretty good offering, with a good amount of mellow but also some pretty weird guitary stuff too. The single, "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" sounds like a lot of fun, but I can see myself getting tired of the chorus quickly. Maybe. Either way, I'm excited for their new album. It is getting me pumped to see them at Lollapalooza (One of many bands it will be my first time seeing!)

Continue reading "New Tuesday"

If there is one new (and by new I mean remastered re-release) album to get this week it is the Margot and the Nuclear So & So's album "The Dust of Retreat." This album will most definitely quickly become one of my favorite debut albums of the year. Richard Edwards voice is beautiful and mesmerizing... the album is a positive progression from his previous band, Archer Avenue. I especially love "On a Freezing Chicago Street" which sounds a little like Sufjan Stevens meets "Plans" ere Death Cab. I can't wait to put it on a playlist and listen to it next winter while walking the freezing Chicago streets. Wait a second...I can TOTALLY wait for that. Luckily the album has 12 tracks and is enjoyable in any weather. Pick up your copy now... it is only a matter of time before the OC gets their hands on this one (if they already haven't) and they blow up.

Continue reading "New Tuesday"