Some pretty good releases hitting stores today, we put the WOXY.com seal of approval on all of the following albums, and hope you will pick them up from the Independent Record store of your choice if you plan to buy.
The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
After a somewhat slow release group last week, this week sees alot of great new albums hitting stores. Take a look at the listing below and be sure to pick up our favorites at your local independent music store of choice.
I think this is the first week of 2008 where there are multiple releases that I have an interest in. Here are the albums due out this week we at WOXY.com have an interest in or are already playing.
Elliott Smith- Autumn de Wilde, who directed the video for Smith’s “Son Of Sam” and created the packaging for his album Figure 8 writes what is not the first, and probably won’t be the last book about the tortured singer/songwriter. And it is not a traditional book but all accounts, in that it is loads of photography and interviews with people Smith knew well. This one is certainly worth checking out for all Elliott Smith fans.
The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting: An Oral History - This book pays tribute to a great rock band that has always been a WOXY favorite. Author Jim Walsh is a longtime Replacements conspirator (his band, Laughing Stock played with them in their early `80s days and he delivered a eulogy at guitarist Bob Stinson’s funeral in 1995), and he nakedly approaches his subjects with the thesis that they were the greatest band of their generation. Still, he makes no apologies for the often cruddy way they treated their fans, their friends, and each other.
33 1/3 Best Of Volumes 1 & 2- If you are not familiar with the 33 1/3 books it is a series of books written about important and/or seminal music albums. Written by one author per album, the series covers in depth some of the greatest albums of all time. The “Best Of” volumes kind of act like a compilation album to the books, with excerpts from the first 20 being covered in the Best Of Volume 1, and the next 20 in Volume 2. To see a full listing of the books 33 1/3 has covered already, go here.
CREEM: America’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll Magazine- CREEM magazine stood at the forefront of youth counterculture from 1969 to 1988 as “America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine.” This book gives fans of the magazine a nice collection of its back issues, and includes some of the best of the magazine’s vast archives of photos, illustrations, and articles. Looks like a perfect gift for the punk nostalgic or a gift for yourself this holiday season.
U2 by U2- This one was released earlier this year and I still have not read it! I’m sure I will get around to it and it looks like you should as well. The story is “written” by the band, with quotes culled from over 150 hours of interviews done for Neil McCormick. Every phase of the band’s career, from it’s earliest days straight through to How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is told solely through quotes from each band member. This makes it more than just another U2 book and worth picking up for yourself or that U2 nerd you love (cough, me, cough) :)
Dead Children Playing: A Picture Book (Radiohead) - For the super duper Radiohead nerd, this book compiles tons of the bands album artwork over the years. It has almost all the paintings Stanley Donwood and Dr Tchock have produced in the last decade, plus this book also contains a loads of never-before-seen artwork. The band have always had odd but intriguing artwork, this would be a super cool coffee table book, as would this next item.
Rolling Stone 1,000 Covers: A History of the Most Influential Magazine in Pop Culture - If you want to have one of the coolest coffee table books around, I think this one would place you into that class. It is what it says, 1,000 covers of Rolling Stone magazine, all packed together into this book. It spans from the beginning of the magazine in 1967 all the way till May 2006.
Got some other great book suggestions? Leave em in the comments….
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Today we focus in on some great music related DVD’s that could really help you as you try to cross everyone off of your holiday lists. I really think there is something for everyone here. Have a look.
Sigur Ros - Heima DVD
Heima translates as “home” and “homeland” and if follows a series of free concerts Sigur Ros played in their native Iceland over the course of summer 2006. I am pretty excited to see this one with all of the Icelandic landscapes in the background. The band’s new double disc album Hvarf/Heim features some of their more familiar songs on the second disc that are stripped down, which is how they were performed on the tour chronicled in the DVD. And as for extras, well, the limited deluxe edition is individually numbered and includes 100 page bound book. While the standard edition is amaray-sized digipak with 8-page booklet. Either way, this is a must have for Sigur Ros fans. U2 Popmart Live From Mexico City
I have been waiting for a long time for this one to hit DVD format. I was nerdy enough of a U2 fan to purchase a copy of this on the never really accepted format of VCD years ago on Ebay, and while my DVD player would never play the thing, I was able to watch via my laptop. So I am pretty excited to see this in true DVD form on my television. It is a really great show that was recorded back on December 3, 1997 (which just happens to be 10 years ago today). The standard version looks nice, but the limited edition 2 DVD version is the way to go here, as it features on the 2nd bonus disc, nine previously unreleased live audio and video tracks, four documentaries, a PopMart tour visuals montage, and DVD-ROM extras! Nirvana MTV Unplugged
Another long overdue show to finally hit DVD this holiday season is the classic MTV Unplugged set from Nirvana. I really don’t know what kept this one from hitting DVD for so long, as the CD was mass marketed over a decade ago and went on to become Nirvana’s second best selling CD of all time. Now 15 years later, the entire unedited performance hits DVD and any big Nirvana fans will be picking this one up. And maybe it is worth the wait for some, as the sound quality is certainly better than 15 years ago on your DVD player and the unedited version gives you two songs not originally broadcasted (”Something In The Way” and “Oh Me” ). Not to mention it is pretty cheap if you snag it online, right now just $11.99 on Amazon.
Oasis Lord Don’t Slow Me Down DVD
If you have any money left at this point, which I do not, I suggest you think about picking the new DVD from Oasis, Lord Don’t Slow Me Down. The rockumentary looks back on British band Oasis’ Don’t Believe the Truth world tour which took place from May 2005 to March 2006. The DVD features two discs, one of which is a documentary tour film, some bonus audio commentary from the band and a Q & A session with Noel as well. The second disc has a full concert at Manchester Stadium from July of 2005, shot in HD. And oh yeah, we have some copies of this one to give away right here on the Futurist, very soon.
Best Of The Johnny Cash Show
I already have a copy of this one and I really love it. The two disc DVD features some amazing performances from The Johnny Cash show, which was a pretty groundbreaking show for its time. I have already watched the better part of the two discs and am blown away at how incredible this thing is. Some of the featured artists include Bob Dylan, Louis Armstrong, Neil Young, James Taylor, Ray Charles, Hank Williams Jr., Joni Mitchell, Carl Perkins and many many more. Another great gift idea.
Check out one of the performances right now…..(keep in mind this looks loads better restored on DVD)
HELP Deluxe Edition DVD
It seems like every year there is something new for Beatles fans to purchase despite the fact that the band have not played a note together in decades. And this year it is a pretty souped up edition of their HELP Movie, which was originally released in theatres in 1965. This deluxe edition has loads of stuff in it which should make the uber collectors happy.
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It is that time of the year again, time to decide what to get for your loved ones for Christmas and begin to cross some names off of that list. Of course, we here at WOXY.com think you should just get them all good music, that is what we do after all. There are not alot of new releases floating around right now, but here are some newly packaged re-issues and best of’s that you may not be aware of that could be great gifts for someone on your list, or yourself.
U2 - Joshua Tree (Remastered / Expanded) (Super Deluxe Edition) (2CD/DVD) - A must have for any U2 nerd, this classic album gets a much needed freshening up and includes some great stuff on the DVD as well. The super nerd version also includes a 56 page hardback embossed book.
Robyn Hitchcock - I Wanna Go Backwards - Another must have here but this for the Robyn Hitchcock fan base. This box set includes 5 CDs which includes the 3 expanded reissues, plus While Thatcher Mauled Britain: a 2-CD collection of 57 bonus tracks. Or you can go with the 8 LP set! A great collection of Hitchcock’s solo works and like I said, a must have for any completest out there.
Massive Attack - Collected Holiday Gift Pack - You may already know about the Collected Best Of thing Massive Attack released last year, but this new version expands things even more. You get two CD’s and a DVD that incorporates the special edition of the trip hop pioneers’ collected hits combined with the companion DVD ‘Eleven Promos’ that compiles their promotional videos.
Certainly worth checking out.
The Brit Box: U.K. Indie, Shoegaze, and Brit-Pop Gems of the Last Millennium - This is a very cool item indeed. It’s a 4 CD set with an average of 20 songs on each disc and compiles the less-commercial but no-less important music of the early 1960s British Invasion all the way to the 1990’s Brit bands like Oasis, Ash and The Verve. Some sweet packaging too.
Amy Winehouse - Back To Black Deluxe Edition Miss out on the Winehouse hype machine this year? It might be a good time to jump on the train now as her album Back To Black is getting the deluxe edition treatment. Although I think only on import right now, this two CD set has loads of bonus tunes to go along with the already excellent album.
Lots more goodies, but these should get you started…..
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Over the past twenty years, Todd Haynes has perfected his own, often avant-guarde, brand of maverick filmmaking. He really made a name for himself in 1987 when he re-enacted the life & death of Karen Carpenter using Barbie dolls in a short film called “Superstar” that was ultimately pulled from distribution after a lawsuit by Richard Carpenter. The film projects that he has chosen to take on have been relatively few and far between when compared to some of his contemporaries, but you always know you are going to get something original when his latest film is unveiled.
There is a great deal of excitement for his new film “I’m Not There”, which has been receiving positive reviews since screening at the Telluride, Toronto and Venice Film Festivals earlier this year. Perhaps the most intriguing thing about “I’m Not There” is that it celebrates the life of Bob Dylan without being a traditional biopic.
Six actors, including Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, and Cate Blanchett (who won Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for the role) represent various evolutions and persona’s from Dylan’s career without directly portraying him. The narrative is inspired more by his songwriting than by his actual life and, as such, will probably confound as many viewers as it delights.
The film opens in limited release on November 21st and will continue to expand across the country towards the holidays.
The 2-cd soundtrack assembled for the project is just as ambitious as the film itself. Over 30 Dylan songs are covered by a veritable who’s who of indie rock. It’s one of the few places you’ll find Sonic Youth, Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, The Black Keys, Stephen Malkmus, Antony & The Johnsons, Sufjan Stevens, Calexico, Willie Nelson, Karen O, and Jeff Tweedy rubbing elbows
outside of Coachella or Austin City Limits festival lineup.
We have 4 copies of this 2-cd collection to give away to some lucky Futurist readers. All you have to do is leave a comment before Friday, November 9th telling us about your favorite Dylan song and why. We’ll select 4 winners from all the entries received!
Another large batch of new releases will be hitting record store shelves tomorrow, here are just a few that we felt like highlighting out of the bunch.
Debut record for 80’s nostalgist Calvin Harris, released on Almost Gold Recordings, the same label that brought Peter Bjorn and John’s Writers Block to the US.
The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
Born Ruffians - Red Yellow And Blue
Jim White - Transnormal Skiperoo
White Hinterland - Phylactory Factory (buy from lala.com)
The Ruby Suns - Sea Lion (buy from lala.com)
These United States - A Picture Of The Three of Us At The Gates To The Garden Of Eden
