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BEST COAST AND TONS OF NEW CD RECOMMENDATIONS AT THE RX!

July 27, 2010 - Recommended , The Record Exchange Blog - by - No Comments

As the songwriter of California’s Best Coast, Bethany Cosentino has a command of the necessary elements that go into pop songs that could stand the test of time, while having a good sense of what’s current musically and culturally. You can hear her keen grasp of past and present on the title track of Crazy for You and on the doo-woppy “The End”, both of which sound like Cosentino and collaborator Bobb Bruno could’ve sampled the “oohs” and “ahhs” from an obscure 1960s compilation, then posted ‘em straight on their MySpace page. So while the debut album’s stories and aesthetic are familiar enough, there’s something about Best Coast’s take on unrequited love and burning yearning that’s refreshing and in the here-and-now.

Hazy, dreamy and genre-defining, this collection of songs proves that the incredible amount of blog and press hype for Best Coast is more than warranted. Crazy for You makes a strong case for the ultimate summer record.

BUY THE CD HERE
BUY THE VINYL HERE

OTHER NEW CD RECOMMENDATIONS:

Miniature Tigers F O R T R E S S
Menomena Mines
Jaill That’s How We Burn
Major Lazer Lazers Never Die EP
Sky Sailing Airplane Carried Me to Bed
Madlib Medicine Show No. 7: High Jazz
Bombay Bicycle Club I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose
Rufio Anybody Out There
Porcupine Tree Nil Recurring
Tech N9Ne Collabos Gates Mixed Plate
Butcher Holler Tribute to Loretta Lynn
Robert Cray Cookin’ In Mobile
Evans Blue Evans Blue
Avenged Sevenfold Nightmare
36 Crazyfists Collisions & Castaways

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RECORD EXCHANGE STAFF PICK: MATT THE INTERN ON WILD NOTHING’S ‘GEMINI’

July 22, 2010 - Recommended , staff pick , The Record Exchange Blog - by - No Comments

Wild Nothing‘s Gemini — you may have heard about it in the blogosphere — has been on heavy rotation at The Record Exchange, and Matt the Intern is here to tell you why:

So far 2010 has been a big year for bedroom pop, yet nothing has been quite as magical as Wild Nothing’s Gemini.

Meet Jack Tatum, the early twenty-year-old behind Wild Nothing who draws influences from his daydreams and the time of the ’80s. Tatum centers around his dreams, which tend to be gloomy, singing of love, loss, and escape. Musically, Wild Nothing’s sound is ethereal, dreamy guitar pop, hinting back to the styles of My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins and Johnny Marr.

Tatum’s congenital songcrafting could be the greatest element about Wild Nothing. From the first listen, it’s striking to hear such wonderful arrangements, and soon the songs make their way into everyday life. Gemini is an instant classic. It’s an album for the hopeful and the sad. Though this record is usually found in my daily rotation, I find it best on a drive through the rain or on a night walk in the pleasant summer air.

The Record Exchange has Gemini available in the store on CD and vinyl, or you can download it from our ThinkIndie Digital Store HERE.

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THE BOOKS’ ‘THE WAY OUT’ AND OTHER NEW CD RECOMMENDATIONS AT THE RX

July 20, 2010 - Recommended , The Record Exchange Blog - by - No Comments

The Books’ first album in five years marks the most sophisticated collage yet from the audio-ransacking duo of Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong. Culling from 4,000 tapes collected on their last tour, The Way Out samples hypnotherapy gurus, answering machine messages, Talkboy cassettes of playfully violent children and other unlikely sources. It’s a meticulous yet absurd work to get lost in, like a labyrinth of shattered mirrors painstakingly reassembled.

The recurring motif of throwing off the ego is a fitting one for the Books, who aim to plunge the listener into a near hypnotic state where the detritus of recorded information — found and original recordings — can wash over the listener in one primal wave. The ear may rest on specific pieces, like seashells on the Pacific’s floor, but it’s all part of a vast ocean of sound. It’s folk music for the Digital Age — instead of the needle popping on a dusty field recording, you hear the catch of electronics, an anonymous voice calling out from the slipstream of time.

BUY THE CD HERE

OTHER NEW CD RECOMMENDATIONS:

Mountain Man Made the Harbor
Zero 7 Record
Portland Cello Project Thousand Words
Marc Cohn Listening Booth 1970
Floater Wake
The Acacia Strain Wormwood
Impending Doom There Will Be Violence
Rick Ross Teflon Don
The Brian Setzer Orchestra Don’t Mess With a Big Band
David Garrett Rock Symphonies

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THE RETURN OF M.I.A AND OTHER NEW CD RECOMMENDATIONS AT THE RX

July 13, 2010 - Recommended , The Record Exchange Blog - by - No Comments

Maya Arulpragasam was born in Hounslow, London England. When she was six months old, her family moved back to their homeland, Sri Lanka. At eight years old, Maya moved back to London, where she and her family were housed as refugees from the civil unrest in their native region. Maya learned proper English at school and slang at home by listening to NWA and Public Enemy on the radio.

In 2000, Maya was encouraged by electro-clash icon Peaches to make music on a Roland MC-505 Groovebox and she pulled lyrics from journals she had written during a four month trip to the Caribbean island of St. Vincent to craft her first songs. In 2005, she released Arular, and reached the mainstream charts in Europe and the U.K. It was considered as much a political statement as a musical one, as it referenced the Tamil Tigers.

In 2007, Kala was released. Like Arular, it received unanimous international critical praise. It topped multiple “Best of the Year” lists in publications around the world with its deft mixture of politics, social consciousness, and inimitable genre-blending.

On Maya, M.I.A. continues her musical exploration into new territory including rock, dubstep and more. She is not a typical artist and Maya pushes the envelope with controversial sounds, lyrics, and imagery. M.I.A is many things — a visual-artist, musician, revolutionary, and style-icon–and just when you think you have Maya pegged, it will surprise you.

BUY THE CD HERE

OTHER NEW CD RECOMMENDATIONS:

The Love Language Libraries
Sun Kil Moon Admiral Fell Promises
School of Seven Bells Disconnect from Desire
Admiral Radley I Heart California
Concrete Blonde Bloodletting (20th Anniversary Edition)
Innocence Mission My Room In the Trees
Maine Black & White
Blue Giant Blue Giant
Carissa’s Wierd They’ll Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996-2003
Matt Morris When Everything Breaks Open
Norma Jean Meridional
Chris Shiflett & The Dead Peasants Chris Shiflett & The Dead Peasants
Morcheeba Blood Like Lemonade
Korn Korn III-Remember Who You Are
Great Big Sea Safe Upon the Shore
In This Moment Star-Crossed Wasteland
Hellyeah Stampede

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KYLIE MINOGUE’S ‘APHRODITE’ & OTHER NEW CD RECOMMENDATIONS AT THE RX

July 6, 2010 - Recommended , The Record Exchange Blog - by - No Comments

“Aphrodite, Kylie Minogue‘s 11th album in a career spanning more than two decades, is meant to bring her back to her dance-floor roots; there isn’t a single ballad on the record. The tracks, produced by Stuart Price (who also helmed Madonna’s Confessions on a Dancefloor), lack the edgy beats and inventive breaks to advance the dance scene, but they’ll fill floors around the world with a confident and sexy sound. Expertly mixed disco beats are laced with catchy choruses, particularly in “All the Lovers” and “Aphrodite.” The songs burst with joyous emotional swells that are perfect for lifting up the sweaty, dancing masses, but Minogue’s coquettish, whispery vocals sound as if she’s singing intimately to the listener.

Minogue’s rise to international fame wasn’t achieved by courting controversy or shocking audiences with outrageous personas. Instead, she tapped into the most consistently potent aspect of pop music: euphoria. Minogue succeeds in sparking the random raptures and unexplained moments of uplift that can be brought on by the right dance beat. Aphrodite’s final track, “Can’t Beat the Feeling,” sums up the record’s appeal: “There doesn’t have to be a reason / There doesn’t have to be a why / Any moment could be magical / It could be this night.” — Amy Schriefer, NPR

BUY THE CD HERE

OTHER NEW CD RECOMMENDATIONS:

Baths Cerulean
How to Destroy Angels How to Destroy Angels
What Laura Says Bloom Cheek
Walter Trout Common Ground
Ed Kowalczyk Alive
Cat Empire Cinema
A Plea for Purging Marriage of Heaven & Hell

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