2014 Releases: Rolling New Music Thread

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Mon May 05, 2014 12:44 pm

I liked the new release threads we started having at the beginning of the year, but maybe having one for each month was too specific and limited.

Why not just have an ongoing one for stuff that's coming out or has come out in 2014? Anything you like or are anticipating. Could be new music, reissues, archival, live, whatever.

To start, I really like the new Chad Vangaalen album Shrink Dust that came out last week. Here's a highlight:

Apparently he just got a pedal steel or something. I get an almost Jason Molina vibe from this song, but it's really not that different from the earlier version he put out on a split with Xiu Xiu back in 2012. Just beefed up a little. If you're familiar with this guy, you know what to expect from this album. It's very good if not quite as good as his last one - Diaper Island - which is probably my favorite thing he's put out.

two guns holla · **Posted:** Mon May 12, 2014 12:56 pm

Sylvan Esso is a Durham, NC-based band with a member of Megafaun and a vocalist from an a capella group called Mountain Man. Really digging this album streaming on NPR: http://www.npr.org/2014/05/04/307765618 ... ylvan-esso

Quote:

The product of an unlikely pairing of musicians, Sylvan Esso works in equally unlikely ways: Singer Amelia Meath first surfaced as a singer in the largely a cappella Vermont folk group Mountain Man, while Nick Sanborn plays bass in the versatile North Carolina psych-rock band Megafaun.

The two met, however, when each was in solo mode, Meath as a singer and Sanborn as a producer of heady electronic music — and that's where Sylvan Esso combines, highlights and ultimately maximizes their talents, in ways that ought to make them both stars. Taut and tantalizing, the 10 songs on the pair's debut have countless different ways of grabbing and inviting attention; they wobble, seethe and coo with charismatic ambivalence.

Evil Dr. K · **Joined:** Mon Oct 25, 2004 11:51 am **Posts:** 6327

I literally went through about 20 new albums all being hyped up and all of them are shite.

We desperately need a new year zero punk thing going on. Everything is so fucking boring, safe, middle of the road or just shitey mimicry.

I'm so pissed off with the music scene right now I will literally send a £10 Amazon voucher code to anyone that introduces me to something I actually like from 2014.

I'm not joking, I will literally give you money. £10 whole pounds or dollar equivalent. An hour of my labour in whatever interchangeable office shitehole I happen to be working in at the time.

PopTodd · **Posted:** Mon May 12, 2014 4:18 pm

Evil Dr. K Wrote:

I literally went through about 20 new albums all being hyped up and all of them are shite.

We desperately need a new year zero punk thing going on. Everything is so fucking boring, safe, middle of the road or just shitey mimicry.

I'm so pissed off with the music scene right now I will literally send a £10 Amazon voucher code to anyone that introduces me to something I actually like from 2014.

I'm not joking, I will literally give you money. £10 whole pounds or dollar equivalent. An hour of my labour in whatever interchangeable office shitehole I happen to be working in at the time.

Try this one.
http://www.thethons.com/product/thirty- ... -download/
And if you do like it, no need to send me anything. Just let me know that you enjoy the music.
RIYL: The Fall, Television

Also, Gruff Rhys just released a new record that I'm digging on.

jsh · **Posted:** Mon May 12, 2014 8:11 pm

Definitely dig that Chad VanGaalen record.

And I think this thread is a good thing.

This is the record I love the most, and I'm proud to have worked on it.

Gord Downie, The Sadies, And The Conquering Sun - Gord Downie, The Sadies, And The Conquering Sun

Cupcakes · **Joined:** Sat Nov 12, 2005 12:04 am **Posts:** 3271

jsh Wrote:

This is the record I love the most, and I'm proud to have worked on it.

What sorta "work"?

jsh · **Posted:** Mon May 12, 2014 10:26 pm

record label, art direction, and stuff.

discostu · **Posted:** Tue May 13, 2014 1:55 am

Timber Timbre
Beck
The War on Drugs
Real Estate
Adam Faucett
Nothing

pinehurst · **Joined:** Fri Dec 10, 2004 1:45 am **Posts:** 1526

Right now, Stephen Malkmus, St. Vincent and Tune-Yards are vying.

PopTodd · **Posted:** Wed May 14, 2014 2:59 pm

Looking forward to picking up the new Damon Albarn.

Roach · **Joined:** Wed Jan 13, 2010 2:39 pm **Posts:** 955

Quote:

Hold the tidings, reconnoiterers. This is a new set of songs from Stephen Cogle of Vacuum, The Victor Dimisich Band and The Terminals. Dark Matter stands with contemporaries The Renderers and The Puddle in exemplifying a “late” style of New Zealand post-punk—more concrete, more distilled.

Cogle’s vocal flourish stills reminds one of Roxy Music—a band that, recall, is only ten years older than Cogle’s earliest projects. The continued relevance of an ensemble like Dark Matter over Roxy Music can only be attributed to the richness of the musical moment that birthed it. Trusted names like Cogle, John Christoffels, John Billows, Joanne Billesdon, Nicole Moffat and Michael Daly continue into the 21st century in new combinations with new aspects to notice. But more than just an update on the Christchurch Sound, Dark Matter plays with punk nostalgia to craft an overwhelmingly romantic (with a lowercase r) pop record.

Too cat-like to be reflective, totally immersed in the garage rock impetus, their flat, gothic psychedelia is equal parts Chills, Television Personalities and Scientists, with the intimacy of Wreck Small Speakers on Expensive Stereos or Small World Experience. With a breadth of material fitting to the subject of “getting older,” Dark Matter is perhaps the most finessed document of Cogle’s vision yet.

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Thu May 29, 2014 11:09 am

There's a new Circulatory System album due out next month.

Mosiacs Within Mosaics

Couple of tracks have been put up on Soundcloud:

"If You Think About It Now"

"Stars and Molecules"

Both of these tracks manage to feel even more disorienting than their older stuff did. (Or maybe it's just been too long since I've listened to them.)

Sketch · **Posted:** Thu May 29, 2014 1:27 pm

I like a lot of the ideas in the Circulatory System tracks just not necessarily all of them at once.

Out this week:
Owen Pallett - In Conflict (not really my thing, but "The Riverbed" is growing to be a favorite track of '14)
Sharon Van Etten - Are We There (not as immediate as Tramp, but the production really suits)
Hercules and Love Affair - Feast of the Broken Heart (nice enough beats, but pretty forgettable; John Grant's on a track, though)
Hundred Waters - The Moon Rang Like a Bell (on deck)

Yail Bloor · **Posted:** Thu May 29, 2014 8:18 pm

They definitely try and squeeze in a lot of ideas at once. Still, I'm glad they are still banging stuff out.

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Fri May 30, 2014 12:41 pm

Yeah I had to listen to both of those tracks a few times before I had any idea how I felt about them. I definitely like the first one and think I may like the second one better in the context of the album. I feel like you really have to immerse yourself in their music, and it only really makes sense on its own terms and in its own world. Anyway, I went ahead and pre-ordered the thing directly from the label. What the hell.

...

In July, one of my favorite releases from last year, Viet Cong's tour release/demo Cassette, is getting reissued by Mexican Summer.

"Oxygen Feed"
I've posted this track before (probably more than once), but the original release of Cassette was taken down from their Bandcamp page a while back and replaced with a truncated "single" for "Throw It Away" which is really just the first two songs from this and doesn't include "Oxygen Feed". This is the first time it's been put back up "officially" since then.

And Cassette really was an actual cassette. I bought one from them when I saw them play live last September. They were fantastic. As much as I love this EP/demo/mini-album/whatever it is, it doesn't really do them justice. They are both heavy and melodic, intricate but catchy and direct. All four of the dudes in this band are great musicians, but you can't necessarily tell that from this somewhat sloppy-sounding release. They actually sound much tighter live. Still, this is great, and it looks like there's one extra track ("Dark Entries") that wasn't on the original release so of course I'm going to buy the reissue (on vinyl) even though I already bought the cassette and paid to download it from their Bandcamp page.

They're supposed to have a full-length coming out this fall.

Radcliffe · **Posted:** Fri May 30, 2014 2:32 pm

Haven't spent much time with either of these yet, but they're starting to get their hooks in me.

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Fri May 30, 2014 3:05 pm

I listened to the song "JM" off of that Strand of Oaks album the other day. It's pretty good aside from the lyrics in the chorus ("sweet tunes to play") which kind of bug me. It's an ode to Jason Molina although it sounds just as much like an ode to Neil Young and early My Morning Jacket.

Cap'n Squirrgle · **Posted:** Fri May 30, 2014 5:08 pm

(Strand of Oaks) Funny how listening to these it sounds so familiar but I can't pin down specific, strong influences. It's ok but not grabbing me, first one's better than the second. Dude's picture reminds me of something somebody said recently, probably Neuro, "I think we may have reached Peak Beard."

(Apache Relay) I already like Don't Leave Me Now, like 30 seconds in. Katie I can resist, though.

seafoam · **Posted:** Thu Jun 05, 2014 9:35 am

fun ep for summer, some tracks off their 2012 album are good too

bort · **Posted:** Fri Jun 06, 2014 6:03 pm

New Rentals album is coming soon

http://pitchfork.com/news/55435-the-ren ... -of-sound/

discostu · **Posted:** Fri Jun 06, 2014 7:13 pm

Drinky Wrote:

I listened to the song "JM" off of that Strand of Oaks album the other day. It's pretty good aside from the lyrics in the chorus ("sweet tunes to play") which kind of bug me. It's an ode to Jason Molina although it sounds just as much like an ode to Neil Young and early My Morning Jacket.

Pretty sure Magnolia Electric Co. was an ode to Neil Young

Cupcakes · **Joined:** Sat Nov 12, 2005 12:04 am **Posts:** 3271

Drinky Wrote:

Anyway, I went ahead and pre-ordered the thing directly from the label. What the hell.

Same. Those couple tracks were enough to know I'll like this...

Cupcakes · **Joined:** Sat Nov 12, 2005 12:04 am **Posts:** 3271

Thee new Oh Sees record (Drop) is underwhelming on first spin...and third spin.

Cupcakes · **Joined:** Sat Nov 12, 2005 12:04 am **Posts:** 3271

#JUGGALICIOUS

Sketch · **Posted:** Mon Jun 09, 2014 12:39 pm

First spin impressions:
Bob Mould - Not his best songs but rocks pretty damn hard for 53. Pretty tight at 36 minutes.
First Aid Kit - Picking up where The Lion's Roar left off. GOOG!

2014 Releases: Rolling New Music Thread

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