New Releases: March 2010

Round up of the most interesting albums and singles released in March 2010 plus links to videos and free & legal mp3s:

Albums

LIARS - Sisterworld (video)
DUM DUM GIRLS - I Will Be (video)
HIGH PLACES - High Places Vs. Mankind (video)
BROKEN BELLS - Broken Bells (video)
BLOOD RED SHOES - Fire Like This (video)
ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT - Coconut (mp3)
TITUS ANDRONICUS - The Monitor (mp3)
BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB - Beat The Devil's Tattoo (video)
SERENA MANEESH - No 2: Abyss In B Minor (video)
LOVE IS ALL - Two Thousand and Ten Injuries (video)
GORILLAZ - Plastic Beach
NEW YOUNG PONY CLUB - The Optimist (video)
JJ - JJ Nº 3 (video)
THE BESNARD LAKES - The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night (mp3)
TED LEO AND THE PHARMACISTS - The Brutalist Bricks (mp3)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY - Happy Birthday (mp3s)
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS - The Big To-Do (mp3)
BONNIE PRINCE BILLY & THE CAIRO GANG - The Wonder Show Of The World (mp3)
EMMA POLLOCK - The Law Of Large Numbers
AIR FORMATION - Nothing To Wish For (Nothing To Lose) (video)
THE MORNING BENDERS - Big Echo (video)
ROGUE WAVE - Permalight (mp3)
THE RUBY SUNS - Fight Softly
FRIGHTENED RABBIT - The Winter of Mixed Drinks (mp3/video)
LAURA MARLING - I Speak Because I Can (video)
ELLIE GOULDING - Lights (video)
GONJASUFI - A Sufi And A Killer (mp3)
AUTECHRE - Oversteps
GOLDFRAPP - Head First
GOLDHEART ASSEMBLY - Wolves And Thieves
BRIGHT EYES AND NEVA DINOVA - One Jug Of Wine, Two Vessels (mp3s)
WOODEN SHJIPS - Vol 2
THE WHITE STRIPES - Under Great White Northern Lights
PAVEMENT - Quarantine The Past
THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION - Dirty Shirt Rock'n'Roll: The First Ten Years

Singles

HOLE - Skinny Little Bitch (stream)
ARCTIC MONKEYS - My Propeller (video)
THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS - The Crash Years (stream)
VIVIAN GIRLS - My Love Will Follow Me
THE BABIES - All Things Come To Pass (video)
GLASSER - Tremel (mp3)
NEW YOUNG PONY CLUB - Chaos (mp3)
FOUR TET - Sing (stream)
GORILLAZ - Stylo (video)
THE DRUMS - Best Friend (video)
VERONICA FALLS - Found Love In A Graveyard / Stephen (mp3)
CRYSTAL ANTLERS - Little Sister / Dead Horse (mp3s)
ZOLA JESUS - Stridulum EP (mp3)
LAURA MARLING - Devil's Spoke
WILD BEASTS - We Still Got The Taste Dancin’ On Our Tongues (video)
LOCAL NATIVES - Airplanes (video)
THE ART MUSEUMS - Rough Frame EP
KING KHAN - Fiery Tears Of St Laurent
EELS - A Line In The Dirt
GONJASUFI - Kobwebz/Speaketh
JOY ORBISON - The Shrew Would Have Cushioned The Blow EP
DJANGO DJANGO - Wor / Skies Over Cairo
LATE OF THE PIER - Best In The Class (video)
FRIENDLY FIRES / HOLY GHOST - Friendly Fires vs. Holy Ghost
DELPHIC - Halcyon (video)
TANLINES - Settings EP
SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO - Extra Temporary EP
GOLDFRAPP - Rocket (video)
JAMIE T - Emily's Heart (video)
A SUNNY DAY IN GLASGOW - Nitetime Rainbows EP (video)

Recommended mp3 downloads:

The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio
High Places - Can't Feel Nothing (Remix)
Holy Fuck - Latin America
MGMT - Flash Delirium
Woven Bones - It Feels Alright
The Hold Steady - Hurricane J
Tokyo Police Club - Breakneck Speed
Neon Indian - Sleep Paralysist
Teenage Fanclub - Baby Lee

We had some great releases this month and one of them is the simply amazing second High Places album, "High Places Vs Mankind". Once the music starts, pressing the stop button is no longer an option! We'll have more about them in the upcoming "Listening Habits" post, but for now here's the new video for one of the album's highlights, "The Longest Shadows":

High Places - The Longest Shadows from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Vintage Tracks 3: Pavement - In The Mouth A Desert

Time for our monthly trip down memory lane for the third installment of Vintage Tracks, the series we have dedicated to the presentation of videos of truly great tracks.

March 2010 marks the return of Pavement to the live scene for their first shows in a decade. To celebrate this much anticipated reunion of one of the best bands that the '90s alternative universe had to offer, we have unearthed (thanks to the magic of the internet) a video from a vintage Pavement performance from the Reading Festival of 1992. This was actually my first Pavement live experience, as I was lucky enough to attend that historical event, with Nirvana headlining on the third day, Sunday, August 30th (see also here). A storm the previous night had already turned the field into a swamp, more suitable for mud baths than concerts, but with so much great music on offer no one seemed to care. Getting to the festival site was not easy thanks to the slippery conditions and the large amount of people trying to get in, which meant that I didn't get to see the band that opened the main stage that day, The Melvins. I was just in time for Screaming Trees though, who were quickly followed by a band I had recently discovered, going by the rather bizarre name of Pavement. John Peel, who introduced them on stage, was already a fan and their blistering set turned out to be one of the highlights of an amazing festival.

It was in June of that year that I had bought what turned out to be one of my top 20 favorite albums of the '90s, the astonishing "Slanted And Enchanted" (June 24 - same day I got "Dirty Boots" by Sonic Youth and "Hit Parade 1" by The Wedding Present - certainly an unforgettable listening experience for me that summer evening). Yes, it was reminiscent of The Fall here and there ("Our Singer" starts with the beat from "Hip Priest" and you could swear that "Two States" is a cover of a "Slates" outtake) but their songwriting had its own unique personality, mixing weird melodies with idiosyncratic beats to create a stunningly original end result, bringing gritty post-punk and sunny indie pop together.

One of the album's standout tracks for me is "In The Mouth A Desert" (which, for some reason, I always thought it made the perfect companion to The Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?") and below you can watch it along with "Perfume-V" from the excellent, wind-swept performance of Pavement in the 1992 Reading Festival. This is how the legend of Pavement began:

Pavement - "Perfume-V" and "In The Mouth A Desert" from Reading Festival, Aug. 30, 1992