Happy Release Day! We’ve got some great titles for you this week including Eluvium, Small Black, Adult., Saltland, Pure X, Dungeonesse, Angel Olsen, and MORE! Be sure to check them out at your local record store, or hit up our online store.
Nightmare Ending is the first proper Eluvium album released since 2010′s Similes, the unexpectedly vocal-heavy ambient-pop record that simultaneously delighted and confounded longtime fans.
SMALL BLACK
Title: Limits of Desire
Label: Jagjaguwar
Limits of Desire is Small Black’s most accomplished album yet. It’s a crystalline realization of a sound they’ve been building toward since their self-titled EP in 2009.
VÅR
Title: No One Dances Quite Like My Brothers
Label: Sacred Bones
On this album Vår utilize everything from acoustic guitar, power electronics, bass, trumpet, multi-tracked vocals, and various percussive instruments, to broken glass & sheet metal samples. No One Dances Quite Like My Brothers is a remarkable debut, an emotional rollercoaster of sorts which at times is profoundly uplifting, at times decidedly morose but remains unfailingly moving throughout.
ADULT.
Title: The Way Things Fall
Label: Ghostly International
The Way Things Fall – the band’s first full length since 2007’s Why Bother? – is a record that sounds both focused and coherent, flowing with a conceptual ease.
SALTLAND
Title: I Thought It Was Us But It Was All Of Us
Label: Constellation
Saltland is the new project led by Montreal-based cellist Rebecca Foon (Esmerine, ex-Silver Mt. Zion), joined by Jamie Thompson (Unicorns, Esmerine) on miniature percussion, programming and signal processing.
PURE X
Title: Crawling Up The Stairs
Label: Acéphale
Crawling Up The Stairs is the second LP from Austin, Texas’ Pure X. Made up of principal members Nate Grace, Jesse Jenkins and Austin Youngblood, they stay true to the dense sound they explored on their last album, Pleasure, but add twinkling atmospherics and a new clarity to their carefully cultivated, emotionally heavy songs.
DUNGEONESSE
Title: DUNGEONESSE
Label: Secretly Canadian
Dungeonesse is a collaboration between writer/producer Jon Ehrens (White Life, Art Department) and singer Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes). Born of a mutual admiration for Top 40 and R&B and the mechanics of what makes a hit song, the duo and longtime friends began putting jams together remotely.
PHARMAKON
Title: ‘Abandon’
Label: Sacred Bones Records
Margaret Chardiet was born and raised in New York City. She has been making power electronics / death-industrial music under the name Pharmakon for five years. As a founding member of the Red Light District collective in Far Rockaway, NY she has been a figurehead in the underground experimental scene since the age of seventeen.
WILLIAM BASINSKI
Title: Nocturnes
Label: Temporary Residence Ltd.
Like his best and most iconic works, the magic of William Basinskiʼs new album, Nocturnes, is in the glacial, inevitable decay of something beautiful. Tape loops of prepared piano – composed and recorded more than 30 years ago – reflecting, refracting, and disintegrating into a haunting sentimental haze, like losing a vivid memory to the natural deterioration of time. Nocturnes is two sprawling new works, begun in 1979 and completed in 2012.
ANGEL OLSEN
Title: Half Way Home
Label: Bathetic/Jagjaguwar
After her highly-acclaimed debut Strange Cacti landed in the hands of listeners, it became very obvious the special presence Angel Olsen offered to listeners. She had a fresh edge to her sound, a warm and wonderful range, and a level of skill and charm out of this world.Half Way Home is a continuation of her elegance brought forth on Strange Cacti, a collection of both new and old music, honed and matured, thoughts revisited.
THE STELLAR OM SOURCE
Title: Elite Excel
Label: RVNG INTL.
Elite Excel is the first listen to Stellar Om Source’s new album Joy One Mile. Furthering her sound further from the formless soundscapes of her earlier work by digging up the roots of NYC electro and Detroit techno, Christelle Gualdi’s version of dance music remains unpredictable and inventive.
Empty Estate is the follow-up EP to the critically acclaimed Nocturne, which received several year-end accolades including album of the year in Under The Radar and iTunes. The 7-song EP was recorded in Brooklyn at Gary’s Electric by Al Carlson in January.
THE CLEANERS FROM VENUS
Title: Cleaners From Venus vol. 2
Label: Captured Tracks
The legendary lo-fi band The Cleaners from Venus formed in the small town of Wivenhoe, southeast England at the turn of 1980s by Martin Newell. The man, the myth, but to rock singer and part-time kitchen porter with a love of sunny 1960s pop music, punk rock and musical comedy. This is a beautiful, 4xCD foldout wallet with booklet including album bios written by Newell himself and never-before-released photos.
Everyone here at SCD is getting super excited for Record Store Day tomorrow, especially with so many great releases coming out this year! We Can’t wait to hit up our favorite local record store, Landlocked Music, bright and early to snag our favorites!
Here are the great titles including Sharon Van Etten, A Place to Bury Strangers, and more coming out from SCD tomorrow. Be sure to pick them up before they’re gone!
A Place to Bury Strangers will release a special EP of covers of Dead Moon songs on “Strange Moon.” Transported through your speakers via translucent “Waxing Gibbous” yellow wax.
2010’s remix of Moon Duo’s Mazes was such a success that Ripley and Sanae decided to do it again for Circles. This time they get help from Black Dice member Eric Copeland, Sun Araw, White Rainbow & Zombie Zombie amongst others.
This comp features several gems: The Men, Psychic Ills (remixing Föllakzoid), Jozef Van Wissem and Jim Jarmusch (featuring vocals from Guy Blakeslee of Entrance Band), Zola Jesus covering Rhianna’s “Diamonds”, The Holydrug Couple covering Serge Gainsbourg’s “Je’taime…Moi Non Plus”, a previously unreleased Wymond Miles track, and a new demo from Case Studies!
It’s no secret that everyone around here are big Calvin Johnson and K Records fans. So, naturally, we were SOOO excited to hear about K Records reissuing all the Beat Happening back catalog. Here is what Verbicide reported about it:
After nearly a decade of being out of print, K Records will be reissuing its first album, the self-titled Beat Happening vinyl. The reissue will actually be a compilation of recordings by Bret, Heather, and Calvin between 1983 and 1985 featuring 23 songs from KLP001 (Beat Happening), the first Beat Happening 45, the Three Tea Breakfast cassette, the Let’s Together, Let’s Kiss, Let’s Sea compilation, and a few songs from Calvin’s vault.
Yup. That is correct. Jagjaguwar’s very own Bon Iver had two albums go gold this week. Congrats, Bon Iver!
Here is an official quote from Jagjaguwar’s press release:
“Jagjaguwar is proud to announce that both Bon Iver full-length releases For Emma, Forever Ago and Bon Iver, Bon Iver have both been RIAA-certified as Gold records in the United States. What’s more, the albums, released nearly two and a half years apart, crossed the 500,000-copy threshhold at the same time.
Emerging from the cabin and finding a place alongside the most important and influential artists of our time, while finding critical success and recognition with a #2 Billboard debut and two Grammy awards, Bon Iver’s rise is exceptional, a journey unlike any other.
We are, quite simply, very proud. Join us in congratulating Bon Iver!”
Hop on over to our website to pick up a copy of the albums today!
Starting out the new year with loads of Pre-order and EXCLUSIVE bundle offers only available through our website! Click on the images below or hop on over to SCDistribution to check them all out!
Guess what?! We have super exciting new! We have officially partnered with Joyful Noise Recordings and are super excited to distribute their materials to you starting this month! Most of us here at SCD partied [ahem, met] the wonderful Joyful Noise team at the [Secretly Canadian / Dead Oceans / Jagjaguwar / Bellwether / SCDistribution ] Christmas party last month and can not be more excited to work with these dudes.
So what can you expect us to distribute from Joyful Noise? How about artists such as Kishi Bashi, Talk Normal, Of Montreal, and so many other in the form of vinyl, flexi discs, box sets, compact discs, and cassettes (just to name a few options).
Want the full lowdown on this label? Hop on over to Joyful Noise Recordings or check out their official bio below:
At Joyful Noise, we are purveyors of interesting physical media for a variety of artistically-honest, exploratory & often haphazard musicians. We’re not your standard noise or experimental label; nor are we interested in typical indie rock. We do however love when these two sides of the spectrum intersect in interesting ways. And we gravitate towards artists who, in one way or another, bridge this gap between pop and noise.
Since our first release in 2003, the label has grown to include a roster of over 20 diverse bands including: of Montreal, Dinosaur Jr, Kishi Bashi, Memory Map, Deerhoof, Joan Of Arc, Jad Fair, Sleeping Bag, Child Bite and many others. We largely focus on the limited edition “boutique” side of things, releasing music on a myriad of physical formats including vinyl, cassettes, flexi discs, box sets, 8 Tracks, wax cylinders, and boring ol’ CDs. It’s our goal to foster incredible music using unique and highly-tactile physical media.
We really love Sacred Bones and are super excited about them turning five! And you know what is even more exciting? That they are hosting their 5th anniversary show IN THE DESERT. And the line up is Sacred Bones at it’s best. We are talking Zola Jesus, Psychic Ills, and Cult of Youth (just to name a few).
Don’t know what I’m talking about? Check out this wonderful interview with Taylor Brode from Sacred Bones to get the full scoop on the show.
All of us here at the Bloomington office are getting geared up for the Foxygen show tonight. Foxygen is a new Jagjaguwar band that will be releases their full length January 22 (check out the pre-order for it here). And let me tell you… we MAY have heard a preview of the album and are really really really excited about it! And you should be too! Here is a little teaser music video which features ‘Shuggie’, the first single off their new album.
Thanksgiving? Done. Black Friday? Check. Cyber Monday? Over. …And so it’s officially time to starting thinking about the Christmas season. Have you dug out those ‘NOW! This is what I call Christmas’ and Nsync’s ‘Home For the Holidays’ CDs? Yeah, us neither. And we are here to tell you not to bother. You don’t need any other Christmas album when you have over 3 hours of Sufjan Steven’s holiday music.
Don’t believe us? Go check out the whole album here which is currently streaming for free on NPR this week.
Still not sold? Well you will be after watching some of these promotional videos for the boxset:
And now that you are obsessed, head over HERE to pick up a CD or LP boxset.
