There was an article on Grantland about Justin Bieber recently and they referred to this as a 'struggle mustache'. It made me think of you when you were trying to grow a beard.

https://play.spotify.com/album/53OYEfi73vBNMcLajTeK18

Here's the first track off of the upcoming Spoon album. Straightforward, Spoon rock. I like.

Haven't seen this one discussed at all, even though it's been out for a while.



Collaboration between John Petkovic (of Cobra Verde and Guided by Voices) and J. Mascis, with guests like Robert Pollard, Mark Lanegan, and Mike Watt.

The song "Wish You Could Stay (A Little Longer)" is one of the best uses of Lanegan's voice since his duet with PJ Harvey on "Hit The City."

My stache will not grow in the middle. It's a Bizarro Hitler.

I've been digging the new releases from Parquet Courts and The Donkeys this week, but my favorite of the year so far, and what has dominated my listening for the past several weeks is Somewhere Else by Lydia Loveless. Fucking fantastic record.

I really like about half of it. Unsurprisingly, it's the half that pushes against the usual boundaries of country/folk/'muricana. Good album though - kind of reminds me of pre-Car Wheels Lucinda Williams - and she does a great job on the Kirsty MacColl cover.

Yeah, in general I would call it more of a "rock" album than an alt-country or whatever album. And that's a good thing.

Thanks for the rec, Rads. Gave this a listen and enjoyed it. Wouldn't have known about it, otherwise.

Happyness - Weird Little Birthday

This album is surprisingly good. Gets a lot of comparisons to Sparklehorse and Pavement, and earns them both (especially Sparklehorse - a few of these tracks could've come straight off of Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot).

Reigning Sound - Shattered

I'll admit I was getting a little weary of the rote garage rock moves of the last few Reigning Sound albums. Even the reformation of the Oblivians was less than stellar. But Greg Cartwright comes through on this one. New soul dudes like Raphael Saddiq and Curtis Harding should just cover this in its entirety.

about to start obsessing over this record.... Spoken Word / Post-Hardcore / Ambient...

Yes, Rads. Yes.

I've been listening to this song a good bit the last couple of weeks on Spotify...you have a link to the whole album?

Thanks! Now, if only I could get that to work...Oh well, I'll give it a shot later.

Here's the direct link that worked for me:

I got it to work, thanks mang.

Sheepishly asking for a link to this one too if you've got it---not on iTunes or i'da bought it.

Thanks, Rads.

This one is getting a lot of play.

I've only given it one listen so far, but I'm already confident in declaring Cool Planet the best of GBV's six post-"comeback" albums. A contender for my 2014 Top 10.

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.[/quote]

Holy crap this is good.

Haven't been here in a while, and bam, the board delivers. Thanks for the recs, guys. I found about 5 excellent albums I hadn't even heard of yet.

which are they?