Kurt Vile has just released his brilliant 4th album called Smoke Ring for My Halo. I am obsessed. He released his 3rd album and his 1st for Matador about a year and a half ago, in October of 2009 and somehow it just passed me by. I just had to go back and see if I even mentioned it in my blog, and I only briefly did but I never got around to really giving it the time it deserved. That album is called Childish Prodigy. I really wish I could go back in time and fall in love with it right there and then but there was a lot going on that week to distract me! The new album from A Place To Bury Strangers had just come out, and new Dead Man's Bones and Gossip albums had just come out as well. I was busy! So when I first heard about the new Kurt Vile album, I really was not that excited and I didn't know what to expect. I had heard some good things about him -- I knew my friend Zack was obsessed, but I really had no idea what he sounded like. From the look of him, I expected him to sound like Andrew WK or Jay Reatard. I had no idea he would sound more like Mark Kozelek or Jose Gonzalez. He is sort of a combination of all your favorite folk musicians: Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Bert Jansch, and Fairport Convention. I was pleasantly surprised when I first heard Smoke Ring for My Halo. I had absolutely no idea that this would be one of my favorite albums of the year!

Anyway, as I was saying, Kurt Vile signed with Matador in 2009 and released Childish Prodigy that same year. He had put out 2 albums before his debut on Matador. Constant Hitmaker was released on Gulcher in 2008 and God Is Saying This To You was released on Mexican Summer in 2009. I have not had a chance to go back and listen to these albums yet but they are high on my priority list -- I just can't stop listening to the new album! It's so good that it is almost too good. I literally have been listening to it over and over again. I just can't get enough of that first track," Baby's Arms." It reminds me of some of my favorite songs by Mark Kozelek and the Red House Painters. But my favorite track is probably "Society Is My Friend." I still am trying to figure out what this song is about. I really have no idea...but it has not kept me from loving the song. Every track on the album is fantastic. Kurt Vile and his band have managed to somehow make one of the best albums of the year and I know some of his fans knew that this album would be that good since they have been loving Kurt Vile for years, but I know there are still many of us who are just discovering him for the first time, which is one of the magical things I love about music. There is nothing like that feeling of hearing an artist for the first time and falling immediately in love! It is sort of like love at first sight -- it doesn't happen that often but it is amazing when it does. There is nothing like that feeling -- so go get yourself some Kurt Vile!


Listen to the Kurt Vile song "Society is My Friend" from the new album Smoke Ring for My Halo...









buy the new album Smoke Ring for My Halo by Kurt Vile

Check out the Kurt Vile What's In My Bag video filmed at Amoeba San Francisco...

 

And don't forget...we are still offering free shipping on amoeba.com for the entire month of March. You still have 2 more weeks. You can click on any of the albums below to purchase. And next week is also a big one -- new albums from The Strokes, James Blake, and Duran Duran...


also out 3/8...






Norwegian Wood Soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood











Collapse Into Now By REM












Light Science by Wires Under Tension











Civilian by Wye Oak







also out 3/15...






No Color by The Dodos











Big Roar by The Joy Formidable











Rare Bird by Steve Martin











Several Shades of Why by J Mascis











Rango Soundtrack