Tristen covers ‘Frosty the Snowman,’ plans 7-inch Xmas release
Tristen is about to put out a 7-inch record with three holiday songs, Blue Christmas, Winter is Blue and Frosty the Snowman. She’s actually paying for the release, Tristen Decks the Halls, through pledges from fans. You can order a copy by going to this site (through Wednesday afternoon).
She also made one of the songs, Frosty, free as a digital download. Check it out below.
New music: Pujol’s ‘Nasty, Brutish and Short’
Pujol is a garage rocker from Nashville named Daniel Pujol. After several 7-inch releases and EPs, Pujol released his first album earlier this year, X File on Main Street. Last month, Pujol released the EP Nasty, Brutish and Short on Saddle Creek, the label founded by Conor Oberst. It’s worth checking out.
New music: Thee Oh Sees’ ‘Carrion Crawler’
If you don’t like Thee Oh Sees, you really don’t like rock ‘n’ roll. Frontman John Dwyer has been churning out great gnarly and chaotic music with Thee Oh Sees, Coachwhips and other bands for more than a decade.
Like Cass McCombs, Thee Oh Sees just released their second album of this year and its a good one. Carrion Crawler/The Dream is the follow to Castlemania, released in May. Highly recommended.
Carrion Crawler – Thee Oh Sees
UPDATE: Thee Oh Sees play two shows Wednesday night (November 23) at the Empty Bottle.
Year of the EP: Wavves, Weekend, Toro Y Moi
One of the best music releases last week was Kurt Vile’s EP So Outta Reach. While there have been excellent new albums out this fall — Girls, Wilco and Wild Flag come to mind — there are some notable short releases, too.
Here are some other recommended EP releases from the past couple of months:
Wavves – Life Sux
Music doesn’t always need to be cerebral.
I Wanna Meet Dave Grohl - Wavves
Weekend – Red
Nice follow to the impressive debut album Sports from last year.
Toro Y Moi – Freaking Out
The king of chill follows the full-length Underneath the Pine with a loose, danceable release.
Trash Talk – Awake
Fans of hardcore definitely want to check this one out.
New music: Atlas Sound, Cass McCombs, Kurt Vile
It’s been a good week for new releases, highlighted by Atlas Sound’s Parallax and Cass McCombs’ Humor Risk. McCombs’ album is his second of the year and a more uptempo follow to the somber Wit’s End. For Bradford Cox, it’s his first official Atlas Sound album since the awesome Logos in 2009. A year ago, you may recall, he released a ton of free music, the Bedroom Databank songs.
Also out this week: Kurt Vile’s EP, So Outta Reach. The release features five songs from the recording sessions for the excellent Smoke Ring for My Halo and a Bruce Springsteen cover. (In addition to making one of the best albums of the year, Vile was one of my noted highlights from Pitchfork fest.) As I posted earlier this week, Summer Camp released its debut, a fun, synth pop album that pays homage to the ’80s.
A Place to Bury Strangers releases a new song
A Place to Bury Strangers plans to release an EP, Onwards to the Wall, in February. The band just released a song, So Far Away, in advance. It rocks.
So Far Away – A Place to Bury Strangers
Here’s a video from the band at SXSW this year:
New music: Summer Camp ‘Welcome to Condale’
I thought this ’80s synth pop craze ran its course. I honestly didn’t want to hear another song. That’s until I heard Summer Camp.
I was sold on these guys — Jeremy Warmsley and Elizabeth Sankey of London — following release of the single I Want You earlier this year. But I was skeptical that the full-album release, Welcome to Condale, would hold up to the strength of that song. I’m happy to say it does. The album is out today.
As noted, the songs have that ’80s sound (think of a John Hughes soundtrack) but there’s an original stamp on them as well. It’s very good.
Cloud Nothings drops new song, plans Albini-produced album
Dylan Baldi, aka Cloud Nothings, just dropped a new track, No Future No Past, which will be on his next album, Attack on Memory, to be released in January.
The new album is produced by Steve Albini, which will become obvious shortly into the song. It’s an entirely different sound for Baldi and his Cloud Nothings project.
Compare:
